Study Reports Poor Communication Among Health Care Workers

Study Reports Poor Communication Among Health Care Workers
By Christina Orlovsky, senior staff writer

Many people avoid confrontation in the workplace, especially, it seems, health care professionals-even when a coworker is demonstrating behavior that could put a patient's health at risk.

A recent study, co-sponsored by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and VitalSmarts, a leadership training consulting, found that when it comes to confronting poor work behavior of colleagues, the majority of health care providers are apt to stay silent.

Silence Kills: The Seven Crucial Conversations for Healthcare surveyed 1,700 nurses, physicians, clinical-care staff and hospital administrators regarding seven "crucial conversations" that relate to medical errors, patient safety, quality of care, staff commitment, employee satisfaction, discretionary effort and turnover.

The concerns were grouped into seven areas, including: broken rules, mistakes, lack of support, incompetence, poor teamwork, disrespect and micromanagement.

Findings showed that more than half of all health care workers had witnessed colleagues demonstrating these behaviors, yet fewer than 10 percent of respondents discussed the behaviors with the perpetrators, even though many were aware of the harm the patient could suffer as a result.

In fact, 20 percent of doctors admitted they had seen harm come to a patient as a result of these concerns; 23 percent of nurses said they were thinking of leaving their units because of potentially dangerous work by their coworkers.
The study also showed that those who do speak up see the rewards in doing so. The 10 percent who fell into this category reported better patient outcomes, greater job satisfaction and a stronger commitment toward their job.
Among other findings:

• 93 percent of physicians and 65 percent of nurses and other clinical-care providers work with some people who have trouble following directions.
• 88 percent of physicians and 48 percent of nurses and other providers have colleagues who show poor clinical judgment when making assessments, doing triage, diagnosing, suggesting treatment and getting help.
• 84 percent of physicians and 62 percent of nurses and other clinical-care providers have seen coworkers taking shortcuts that could be dangerous to patients.
• 81 percent of physicians and 53 percent of nurses are concerned about the competence of another provider.

Several of the communication concerns had a greater impact on nurses. For example, 88 percent of nurses reported that they have at least one teammate who gossips or is part of a clique that divides the team; 77 percent of nurses have coworkers who are condescending, insulting or rude; and 33 percent work with others who are verbally abusive-they yell, swear or name call.

"This research validates what our 100,000 constituents have communicated to us as the number one barrier hindering optimal care for patients," said Kathy McCauley, RN, Ph.D., AACN president, who called the study a "wake-up call" about workplace communication.

"Too often, improving workplace communication is seen as a 'soft' issue," McCauley added. "The truth is that we must build environments that support and demand greater candor among staff if we are to make a demonstrable impact on patient safety."

To that end, the AACN released a set of national standards to promote communication among nurses and other health care staff.

According to the AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments, the efforts that must be enforced are:

• Skilled communication.
• True collaboration.
• Effective decision-making.
• Appropriate staffing.
• Meaningful recognition.
• Authentic leadership.

"These standards revolve around improving the work environment so nurses can make their optimum contribution," McCauley said.

"Health care is based on humans. Well-meaning, good nurses are going to make mistakes-not because they're bad people, but because there's a system problem that could exist because of lack of collaboration, because their input isn't valued or because they aren't involved in decision making," she added. "We have to create an environment that gets at these problems so they don't happen again. Devising these standards is an important first step."

Original article cited from Nursezone.com. To view the original article, CLICK HERE.