Once upon a time in the ED
Once upon a time (2003-2010) I was was an Emergence Department (ED) educator for two Kansas hospitals. Now if you have ever been or ever met an ED nurse they are indeed an edgy and opinionated group of people. I learned a few things.
- If you can show them examples of the problem within their own ED patient population, you can get their attention. They do care about their patients and the care they give.
- Not all ED nurses are in Graduate school. They do not all understand evidence based practice, peer reviewed research, or even best practice guidelines. However all ED nurses are potential Graduate students. You can teach them about these concepts and they are receptive.
- If you involve ED nurses in the change and give them responsibilities for change, participation and success is greater. Rather than heading every change project myself, I would instead enlist leaders to head up committees for change. I soon learned that I did not have to chair every committee, in fact I should not chair every committee. The nurses needed to own the change.
- Inspiring ownership and pride in ED nurses for their ED was crucial. Our ED’s belonged to our ED nurses. Not the Doctors, not the director or manager. No the ED nurses took responsibility and thus pride in how their ED ran.
Share your own strategies/ experiences with creating change with evidence practice at your own work site.
