Post Author: Beth Boynton, RN, MS, CP

Beth Boynton is a nurse consultant.

Beth Boynton is a nurse consultant.

The complexity of resilience and the role of medical improv

Conditions
November 21, 2023

High incidences of burnout, quiet quitting, suicide, workplace violence, excessive and relentless stress, and chronic staffing shortages reveal a huge need for resilience among health care workers. Resilience is a complex competency involving flexibility of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in response to adversity. Adversity, especially when it comes to working in health care, involves individuals and the cultures they work in. We must keep the culture in mind because, as …

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Why emotional intelligence is critical for safe nurse staffing

Conditions
October 27, 2023

In Daniel Goleman’s model of emotional intelligence (EQ), there are two main competencies: Personal competency, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation; and social competency, which includes social skills and empathy.

We can think of both competencies in terms of communication. Personal competency relates to our abilities to identify and value our needs, wants, limits, etc., and to express them respectfully, i.e., speaking up. Social competency refers to our ability to observe, …

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Communication, power dynamics, and organizational culture in health care

Conditions
October 2, 2023

In a recent podcast conversation with Kevin Pho, MD, we talked about the importance of assertiveness in health care, including the ability to say “No” and the significance of culture in supporting it.

One of the topics we touched on was the influence of both top-down and bottom-up factors, which I want to elaborate on here.

Organizational culture refers to how and why things are done at work and the rules …

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The importance of “I statements” in health care settings

Conditions
September 16, 2023

Three nurses are at the nurses’ station. Two are talking about managing a patient’s pain, and a third, Donna, is reviewing a patient’s lab results and finding it difficult to concentrate.

Which is Donna’s best statement?

1) Shhh, stop talking!
2) I’m frustrated with your talking. It’s hard to concentrate, and I’d appreciate it if you would quiet down.

Answer: It depends on the relationships and Donna’s preferences. If Donna has a positive history …

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Empowering health care professionals: the art of saying “no” and more

Conditions
August 30, 2023

Setting limits, asking for help, delegating, or even saying “no” are important assertiveness skills. Health care professionals should be proficient in assertiveness because of the potential impact on patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness.

Assertiveness examples

How might these assertive statements influence outcomes?

  • “I haven’t had training in using that IV pump and need help.”
  • “Stop! Don’t make that incision! It is the wrong leg.”
  • “I cannot keep seeing patients …

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“YES AND”: a vital, versatile, and visionary leadership tool

Conditions
August 11, 2023

Patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness are critical outcomes that share important common roots. They are all impacted by our ability to communicate effectively and respectfully. This can be challenging, in part, because communication involves underlying emotional intelligence, which is hard to develop and practice, especially in high-stakes, high-stress work environments or toxic cultures.

Furthermore, our ability to communicate affects our capacity to establish healthy professional relationships, collaborate in …

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The hidden link between soft skills and patient safety

Conditions
January 25, 2023

The skill

Patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness are critical outcomes with an important common root. They’re all impacted by our ability to communicate effectively and respectfully. Additional terms to describe these skills include people, interaction, interprofessional, relationship, and social skills. They can even be used to describe behaviors inherent in many properties of complex adaptive systems, such as the butterfly effect, flexibility, and adaptability. The more we understand …

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Leading an organizational culture change? Consider an apology first.

Conditions
October 27, 2022

Leading an organization from a culture of bullying or blaming to a culture of safety is a daunting initiative. Unhealthy alignments are deeply embedded in toxic cultures, and informal power dynamics may influence how people behave. Instead of respectful communication where giving and receiving constructive feedback is ongoing, common behaviors include:

  • gossip
  • exclusion
  • humiliation
  • sabotage
  • withholding

All of which perpetuate a cycle of broken trust and poor conduct.

While patients, the workforce, …

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Improving communication requires tough soft skill development

Conditions
August 25, 2022

If we are going to take on the challenge of improving communication and related behavior, a.k.a. “soft” skills among health care professionals, we should be realistic. As nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals, we are keenly aware of how difficult changing behavior can be. We see it daily in our patients’ efforts regarding healthy choices and lifestyles. For example, it can be hard to lose weight, exercise regularly, or …

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Use the power of words to reduce bullying of nurses

Conditions
February 7, 2016

Distinguishing between the terms “bully” and “bullying” is an important step that we can take in order to eliminate or at least minimize any disruptive or undermining behaviors that are often associated with bullying.  Yelling at, humiliating, excluding, gossiping about others are a few of ways we humans cleverly demonstrate disrespect for others.  And we all know that lack of respect is a persistent and pervasive problem in health care.

As …

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