According to the national study, “The Silent Treatment: Why Safety Tools and Checklists Aren’t Enough to Save Lives,” 85 percent of health care workers reported a safety tool warned them of a problem that otherwise might have been missed and could have harmed a patient.
Full Answer
How can organizations use the silent treatment to improve safety?
Organizations and teams can then use the ideas within the playbook to create a multifaceted plan that is tailored to their individual situation. The Silent Treatment details the success and limitations of current safety tools. Most of these tools work by warning caregivers of potential problems.
What is the Silent Treatment study?
The Silent Treatment study, conducted in 2010 by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), and VitalSmarts, examines an especially dangerous kind of communication breakdown: risks that are known, but not discussed, or “undiscussables.”
Can we resolve the problem of organizational silence?
If every caregiver has these skills, it will go a long way toward resolving the problem of organizational silence. There is cause for optimism at the organization level. Nurses today are voicing their concerns nearly three times more often than they did just five years ago.
Can Silence Kills help caregivers?
Silence Kills found that caregivers who are able to speak up and resolve undiscussables report better patient outcomes, are more satisfied with their workplace, exhibit more discretionary effort, and are more committed to staying in their unit and their hospital.
Why silence kills?
The silence creates confusion, which causes disconnect, which inevitably leads to friction. Friction with those you respect must be worked out, or it will eventually rear its ugly head through conflict.
How do you win the silent treatment?
If the silent treatment does not appear to be part of a larger pattern of abuse, a person can try the following approaches:Name the situation. ... Use 'I' statements. ... Acknowledge the other person's feelings. ... Apologize for words or actions. ... Cool off and arrange a time to resolve the issue. ... Avoid unhelpful responses.
How can we preserve patient safety?
5 Factors that can help improve patient safety in hospitalsUse monitoring technology. ... Make sure patients understand their treatment. ... Verify all medical procedures. ... Follow proper handwashing procedures. ... Promote a team atmosphere.
What personality type gives the silent treatment?
The silent treatment is a form of emotional abuse typically employed by people with narcissistic tendencies.
Is silent treatment manipulation?
The silent treatment is widely regarded as a form of emotional manipulation and even psychological abuse. It is the act of ceasing to initiate or respond to communication with someone else or refusing to acknowledge them altogether.
Why patient safety is so important?
It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care. A cornerstone of the discipline is continuous improvement based on learning from errors and adverse events. Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality essential health services.
What are the factors affecting patient safety?
In a study by Ridelberg et al., nurses ranked 22 factors affecting patient safety in seven groups of patient-related factors: personal factors, team work, duties, technology and equipment, work environment, management and organization, and organization and institution conditions (18).
What does the value of safe mean to you?
1. Protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost. 2. Not likely to cause or lead to harm or injury; not involving danger or risk.
What is silence kills?
Silence Kills was a 2005 report that highlighted communication failures that contribute to patient harm. These included broken rules, poor teamwork, and disruptive behaviors. This report builds on those findings based on a survey of more than 6500 nurses and nurse managers. Key findings suggested that existing safety tools, such as checklists, are not in themselves solutions to these communication failures. Nurses identified dangerous shortcuts, incompetence, and disrespect as three concerns that undermine systems designed to provide safer care. A past AHRQ WebM&M perspective and interview discuss the role of checklists in health care settings.
What are the three concerns that undermine systems designed to provide safer care?
Nurses identified dangerous shortcuts, incompetence, and disrespect as three concerns that undermine systems designed to provide safer care.
What percentage of nurse managers report that they had spoken up to the person whose shortcuts create the most danger for patients
Only 41 percent of the nurse managers reported that they had spoken up to the person whose dangerous shortcuts create the most danger for patients.
What are the concerns of nurses in the 2010 study?
More of the nurses in the 2010 study have concerns about dangerous shortcuts, incompetence, and disrespect; more have seen patients harmed; and more speak up about their concerns. The authors of the 2010 study believe these differences likely stem primarily from the differences in the two samples.
Do warnings create safety?
But warnings only create safety when the caregiver who is warned is able to speak up and get others to act. The data in this study reveals that caregivers, including nurse managers, are often unable to accomplish this level of candor. As a result, they either clam up or blow up.
What percentage of respondents have been in a situation where a safety tool warned them of a problem?
The Silent Treatment found that 85 percent of respondents have been in a situation where a safety tool warned them of a problem. Thirty-two percent said this happened at least a few times a month—confirming that safety tools work. Checklists, protocols, and warning systems are an essential guard against unintentional slips and errors.
What is VitalSmarts?
An innovator in corporate training and organizational performance, VitalSmarts is home to the award-winning Crucial Conversations®, Crucial Confrontations®, and Influencer Training™. Each course improves key organizational outcomes by focusing on high-leverage skills and strategies. The company also has three New York Times bestselling books and has trained 600,000 people worldwide.
Skilled Communication
SBAR and Healthy Work Environments Standards Pocket Card, Available for Download and Self-printing This pocket card, designed by Linda M. Bay, RN, MSN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, clinical nurse specialist at Clement Zablocki VAMC (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is being generously shared by this facility. We encourage you to have it printed and distribute to staff
True Collaboration
TeamSTEPPS TM National Implementation TeamSTEPPS TM is an evidence-based teamwork system aimed at optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals. TeamSTEPPS was developed by the Department of Defense (DoD) in collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
How to stay in touch with friends without having to coordinate schedules?
Engaging in regular activities, such as book club meetings, is a great way to stay in touch with friends without having to coordinate schedules each time. Disconnect technology. If you’re not on call, turn off your cell phone and computer while you’re having dinner or visiting friends.
What is critical nursing shortage?
Self-awareness: A critical nursing shortage. A nurse’s workday is full of people in need: patients in pain or nearing death, and family members struggling to understand and cope with their loved ones’ conditions. Most nurses are drawn to the profession by a desire or need to care for others, and many are more likely to think ...
Why are nurses less apt than the general population to pay attention to who they are?
As a result, many nurses are less apt than the general population to pay attention to who they are, what they like, what they value, what they fear, what they need, and why they do what they do. Nurses who lack this self-awareness commonly are: overwhelmed with work and home responsibilities because they never say “no”.
Why do nurses not speak up?
Many nurses cite fear of termination or retaliation as their reason for not speaking up—even if they work for organizations with no history of taking such actions against nurses who’ve made legitimate complaints, and that have systems in place for intervening if an objectionable behavior continues or gets worse.