Build a Dream Team to boost staff adjustment
Build a Dream Team to boost staff adjustment
Teams spend two weeks smoothing roll-out
The pulmonary care unit at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ, is all aflutter. Today is the day patient-focused care rolls out. Will the technical partner miss her first stick? Will the administrative partner remember to flag the charts? Will the RN feel comfortable relinquishing some tasks to her new care team members, or try to do it all herself?
Enter the Dream Team, so called because they are the model of perfection in caregiving, like their Olympic counterparts who excelled in basketball. This Dream Team floats from shift to shift serving as role models for fellow caregivers.
The Dream Team is one of the several tools the transition team created to reduce staff anxieties about the new roles and to smooth implementation of patient-focused care.
Overlook radically changed its caregiving structure last year, compressing 13 jobs into four through decentralization, cross-training, and unit reorganization. The self-directed caregiving teams, whose members are called care partners, include:
• clinical partners, who are RNs and respiratory therapists;
• technical partners, who are LPNs and others cross-trained to perform phlebotomy, EKGs, and other basic caregiving tasks;
• administrative partners, who are cross-trained in such tasks as flagging charts, scheduling, and bedside patient registration;
• support partners, who are cross-trained to handle dietary, housekeeping, and transport needs.
The implementation team knew confusion would prevail during the roll-out and searched for ways to stem the worst of it. They created a model team, nicknamed the Dream Team. The team included four volunteers representing each of the new roles. They could set their own schedules during this training period so they could rotate through all shifts.
Treiber says the team provided instantaneous support to staff who were anxious about their new, untested caregiving roles. The team reassured the trainees when they were on the right track, praised them when they were successful, and assisted them when needed.
The team also provided feedback about the effectiveness of the training program. It toiled during the opening days with the new care partners to learn which portions of the curriculum worked and which ones needed modifications before the next training session.
After two weeks, the team members returned to their original jobs and another member of the training team, the transition coach, stepped in. The transition coach supported the teams for several months until the care partners were comfortable in their new roles.
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