How to Improve Communication in the Hospital

In the high-tech healthcare system, communication between doctors, nurses, and other staff members plays an important role. A hospital patient interacts with several healthcare providers - from doctors to nurses to technicians - and so on. Therefore, an effective flow of communication followed by team collaboration is important in ensuring patient safety.

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are expected to communicate and work together well. Here are some simple steps that can encourage doctors to communicate well with nurses and other co-workers -

Address the situation - To establish a communication culture it is important to address the situation at hand. Nurses need to assertively speak their mind and doctors need to cooperate with them. This not only helps nurses with their professional success, it is also essential for every patient’s well being. 

Friendly Environment - In any professional field, familiarity is valued more than formality. There is a need for creating a friendly workplace environment. Here, doctors and nurses cooperate and work together. In addition to this, the workplace environment needs to be open. This means that nurses and doctors can question each other’s decision-making without hesitation and without intimidation or fearing a negative outcome.

Focused Team Training Program - The most efficient method of establishing team collaboration is organizing team training programs. With team training programs, a culture of respect, accountability, trust and shared decision-making is encouraged. Here, constructive feedback is supported to minimize the risk of error, while improving every aspect of patient care. Through these programs, doctors meet other physicians and nurses they are working with and everyone learns each other’s names. From here, a healthy, professional relationship develops that lays the foundation for optimum patient care.

Practice Collaboration - A difference of opinion and conflict are inevitable parts of any workplace setting. Therefore, to work in collaboration, it is important to analyze the other person’s point of view, instead of immediately rejecting it. This kind of approach often works wonders and provides fresh insight or a solution to a problem. Plus, for the sake of patient safety, healthcare professionals need to work constantly to foster an environment that facilitates cohesion and collaboration.

Effective communication is vital in every field of business, profession, as well as in everyday living. If you have more tips that can help in improving communication while at work, please share them with us in the comments below. 

For nurses who are looking for opportunities to study and work abroad, INSCOL offers specialized nursing courses in top countries across the world. To learn about available graduate and post-graduate nursing programs, visit the website www.inscol.com.

4 Questions Nurses Ask Before Giving NCLEX Exam

Always remember, fortune favors the prepared. Apart from this, there are other points to be taken before you appear for your NCLEX exam. We know, undoubtedly, this exam is the most comprehensive exam that you’ve probably appeared for in your whole life. This exam determines your future in the nursing profession. Therefore, the fear you must be feeling about the exam is justified in its full entirety.

Not to worry, this kind of fear is faced by everyone who is in the same situation as yours. Moreover, many nurses ask questions related to the exam and create some misconceptions about the same.

Down here, we've listed 4 questions nurses ask before giving their NCLEX exam -

Question #1 - Do SATA (select all that apply) kind of questions always have at least two correct answers.

The truth is that the questions that have the option of selecting all that apply as a response to the multiple choices have minimum two correct answers out of the 5 or 6 choice provided.

Question #2 - Is the number of questions the majority of students get 75? 

Many students ask this question. There is no majority or minority group of students. The students appearing for NCLEX-RN do get an average of 119 questions and the students appearing for NCLEX-PN do get an average of 117 questions. This is how the number of items is administrated for each candidate.

Question #3 - If I do not finish the exam before the time runs out, do I ultimately fail the exam? 

The exam is set in a way that the students get sufficient time to cover the exam. So, each candidate is meant to answer at least 60 operational questions to pass the same.

Question #4 - Are candidates randomly selected to receive 265 questions?

No. The candidates are not at all randomly selected to get 265 questions in their NCLEX exam. The questions are distributed in a way that they follow the principles of CAT (Computerized Adaptive Testing). The items, which the candidate gets during the examination, are based on the response he/she gives to the previous items.

Further, the exam ends when it can be easily figured out with 95% confidence whether the person who is sitting for the exam is above or below the passing criteria. However, NCLEX-RN lasts for a maximum time period of 6 hours and NCLEX- PN exam lasts for a maximum time period of 5 hours, regardless the number of items answered.

There are many other questions that the potential candidates ask about, but these questions are asked much more frequently that they needed to be answered correctly. If you too have some queries regarding NCLEX examination, then you can get them answered at http://www.inscol.com and follow the link to explore some helpful NCLEX-RN study tips shared by professional nurses.

What Phrases Nurses Say Most While at Work?

Seems like an unconventional topic of research, a popular portal for nurses conducted the World’s Most Unscientific Survey! Around 37,034,686 nurses participated in the survey and asked to answer one simple question - What phrase you say most during the day?

The responses were overwhelming and surprising too as some of them shared conventional, practical, useful answers that made us to take them out as clear outliers. Next was the remaining ones and from approximately 65,023 responses, we found the below listed phrases said by nurses more frequently as compared to others. Let’s take a look here - 

• "No problem! I'd be happy to change your TV station again. What else would I do with all of my free time?"
• "Sorry, your insurance doesn’t cover the good Tylenol."
• "You won’t feel a thing."
• "You’ll have to ask your doctor that. And after he answers, could you clue me in?"
• "This won’t hurt a bit. Trust me, all the times I've attended this procedure, I've never felt a thing!"
• "Ring that call bell one more time and just see what happens." (Generally not said very loudly.)
• "No, I will not give you a sponge bath."
• "And how do you wipe your butt at home?"
• "You're going to feel a little prick…unless you don't settle down, in which case it's square needle time... those suckers hurt!"
• And the best one, always said with a big smile: "I’m sorry to wake you, Doctor.."

If you are a nurse and often say something that sounds unusual or rare, list them in the comments. We would be glad to include and share them with the nursing fraternity.

Nurses! Here are Some Useful Tips for Preventing Burnout

Nursing profession is driven by a desire to care for others though this profession is rewarding but is extremely exhausting. Every nurse is at a substantial risk of experiencing nurse burnout, this is a serious issue facing healthcare industry but it can be prevented.

What Exactly is a Nurse Burnout?

Studies reveal that a nurse's level of burnout is directly correlated to lower patient satisfaction. Nurse burnout can be defined as a feeling of prolonged sickness, stress, and fatigue accompanied with unhappiness. Moreover, external factors like time limitation, challenging shifts, physical and emotional demands results in an extremely stressful environment which can affect an individual's performance at work and their mental stability. 

Here are Few Symptoms of Burnout -

• Prolonged sleeping disorder and eating difficulty
• Experiencing high anxiety
• Suffering from physical ailments like chronic pains and restlessness
• A feeling of emotional numbness
• Developing an indifferent attitude towards relationships
• Withdrawn from job Responsibilities
• Feeling burdened & trapped by job responsibilities
• Feeling physically and mentally drained
• Lack of professional enthusiasm

Once you find these signs, the first step to heal the burnout is stop it an early stage by preventing the buildup of stress. Here are some tips to overcome burnout:

• Regular Breaks - Working ceaselessly throughout the day can be exhausting. Taking small breaks in between is essential as it refuels the body and mind.
• Maintaining a work/life balance - Time management is required to effectively balance your work & life. Make sure you get some time for your personal life, to pursue your hobbies be it yoga, biking or music and to socialize with your friends & family. So, when you manage to take out some time for self-care, you can certainly go a long way in fighting nurse burnout.
• Collaboration and communication at the workplace - Nurses work individually however importance of team work cannot be ruled out. Thus, it is essential to maintain lines of communication with the co-workers so that workload is managed efficiently. Moreover, having a social support system at workplace is important that helps you to sail through the tough times smoothly.

These tips will help you fight the burnout however, if burnout seems inevitable, it is good to take a break from work. Use your sick leaves and go on a vacation, recharge your batteries and join back with a fresh perspective and zeal to work.

INSCOL in collaboration with BPP University, London and Seneca College, Canada offers Nursing Leadership & Management programs at world class hospitals to help nurses progress their careers and take up managerial roles in healthcare settings!

For more information visit at: 

http://www.inscol.com/philippines/academic-courses/

http://inscol.com/philippines/academic-courses/post-graduate-certificate-in-nursing-leadership-management/