The Gift of Feedback

By Giulia May/Unsplash

In a recent Schwartz Rounds session at my hospital, the facilitators centered the discussion around the theme, “The Gift of Feedback.” As I listened to the panelists share their experiences, I recalled two recent exchanges with colleagues I’ve developed positive working relationships with over the years.

One was with a hardworking care partner (CP) who has been in our unit for about six years. The other exchange was with an attending physician who had been a well-respected leader in our PICU long before my 11 years working there. I find both to be very kind and very professional.

Asking a care partner for feedback.

As one of the more experienced bedside nurses in our unit, about once every four to six weeks I fill the role of relief charge nurse. I’ve done it enough over the years to feel decently comfortable in the role, but I do it so infrequently that each time I find myself relearning aspects of the role.

The charge nurse always sits in the same station as the care partner who manages the front desk. This individual gets a close-up view of how all the different relief charge nurses handle the role. One day towards the end of a busy shift, I […]

2021-12-17T13:21:05-05:00December 17th, 2021|career, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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A Strong Case for the Professional Introduction in Nursing

nametagDo you always introduce yourself by name to your patients? Or do you simply say, “Hi, I’ll be your nurse today?”

In their Viewpoint essay in the June issue of AJN, Raeann LeBlanc and two colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing make a strong case for the professional introduction, in which “a nurse states her or his full name and role in the patient’s care.”

The authors argue that professional introductions are “a powerful way to make clear the centrality of the nurse’s role in the care of the patient.” When nurses use professional introductions, we make our knowledge and expertise more visible and help patients better understand just what it is that nurses do.

The authors also address potential safety concerns nurses may have about disclosing their full name to a patient, and they offer some reasons why the importance of professional introductions may not be taught in nursing school.

[…]

2016-11-21T13:01:07-05:00June 28th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, patient experience|5 Comments
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Nursing Yet Again the Most Trusted Profession. So What?

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, interim editor-in-chief

I was catching up on my reading over the weekend and came across a press release issued December 9 by the ANA (American Nurses Association). It noted that “[f]or the eighth consecutive year, nurses have been voted the most trusted profession in America according to Gallup’s annual survey of professions for their honesty and ethical standards. Eighty-three percent of Americans believe nurses’ honesty and ethical standards are either ‘high’ or ‘very high.'”

Laudable for sure, but I keep wondering: does this matter to anyone but us? In the past eight years, has this designation helped nurses get to the policy table? Has it made key decision-makers realize that in addition to being trustworthy, nurses are also smart, skilled professionals who can be the key to cost-effective, quality care?

It’s really amazing (in an appalling sort of way): the groups among those with the lowest trust ratings—politicians and lawyers—dominate when it comes to making key decisions about health care (and about everything, actually). And we wonder why things are the way they are?

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2016-11-21T13:20:35-05:00December 15th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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