It’s time to reflect on what our department has accomplished lately and I can’t help but feel bad about projects we didn’t get to. Any ideas on how to implement more ideas?
I find that if I don’t set up a timeline for the year, I wind up just fighting the day-to-day fires I encounter in just managing the department. I meet with my leadership team in December and have each person bring forth an idea that they feel real passionate about.
We then take each project and spread it out over our poster board calendar. Each month is a new task that will bring us closer to our goals. Some projects will be finished before the end of the year and others will take the full year. It feels great to get to the end of the year and then reflect on our accomplishments.
Implementing a good bowel and bladder program is absolutely the last program I ever want to work on. Any inspirational thoughts to get my team motivated?
I have spent some time thinking about “dignity” as it relates to incontinence. Can’t seem to find any dignity in incontinence. My motivation for the team will be a banner in the nursing office that says, “There’s No Dignity in Incontinence!” Simple, but to the point.
I will challenge each nursing unit to working with its staff in developing a program/system to assess continence and improve it. I think part of the reason that we never get around to this program is the labor-intensive approach that the current written programs entail.
Let go and let your team develop a user-friendly approach to this complicated program. Let me know what you come up with.
From the January 01, 2010 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
