| Description |
Guided by the IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work (Perlo et al., 2017), our team aimed to improve staff well-being by focusing on strengths and showing appreciation for staff members that rarely receive recognition, but do a lot of the heavy lifting when it relates to patient care. Goal/Aim: "Our hope was that we could improve staff morale as well as engage leadership, even during this transitional time at our organization. Actions Taken: We conducted What Matters to You? conversations with team members and categorized responses using the IHI framework's nine components. One of the biggest concerns for staff during our WMTY conversations was staff safety. This is the most important component of the IHI framework for staff morale. Conversations were begun with leadership about ways to improve staff safety. These conversations are continuing. Many leadership positions at HMHI are interim roles, many leaders have left suddenly and change within a hospital system takes time. Due to these obstacles and the parameters of my own position, I chose to focus on another issue that came up often: Staff connection and feeling appreciated by leaders within the organization. Within the Joy in Work framework this fell under the following categories: Camaraderie & Teamwork, Participative Management, and Recognition & Rewards. I enlisted team champions on each in-patient unit at HMHI as well as IMP (Inpatient Medical Psychiatry) and our TRMD (Treatment Resistant Mood Disorder) clinic. Each champion chose a co-worker to nominate for recognition. These nominees received a small gift card, a card of appreciation signed by their co-workers and a spot in HEARTLINES: an e-letter that was sent to all clinical staff as well as leadership." Summary of results: Staff who received the shout-out as well as nominators expressed an increased level of connection and engagement. Leadership expressed appreciation for learning about clinical staff. And while we started on the adult units, within a couple of weeks, youth leadership as well as leadership from the TRMD clinic wanted to be included in the project. Another important part of Heartlines was introducing some of our Nursing Shared Governance leaders from each of the units. These staff members have chosen to take on an extra role and it was exciting to highlight them. A few issues that need to be improved include sharing information between leadership and staff; and finding an easy way to continue and expand the Heartlines e-letters in order to engage more staff. During the two and a half month period that Heartlines has been running, we have only been able to nominate about one staff per unit due to the many different units. Conclusion: Using the IHI framework and WMTY method helped us identify low-cost, high-impact ways to enhance teamwork and well-being. Citation: Perlo J, Balik B, Swensen S, Kabcenell A, Landsman J, Feeley D. IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work. Cambridge, MA: Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2017. |
