"Requirements will be waived for nurse practitioners to have a written practice agreement with a physician, which is an obstacle that stands in the way of nurse practitioners providing the maximum amount of care to New Yorkers," the State of the State proposal states.
"New York's health workforce is filled with tremendously talented professionals," Hochul's proposal reads. "We should leverage the growing skills of the workers already caring for New Yorkers to provide even more care when it is needed most."
Full practice authority legislation has been adopted in 24 states, streamlining healthcare delivery by granting patients full and direct access to the comprehensive services NPs are educated and clinically prepared to provide.
Granting full practice authority bolsters efforts to reduce healthcare disparities and increase health equity.
"AANP applauds Gov. Kathy Hochul for recognizing that New York residents deserve to have better access to the healthcare provider of their choice," says April N. Kapu, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, FAANP, FCCM, FAAN, president of AANP.
"For the past two years, patients have experienced full and direct access to the services NPs provide as executive orders waived unnecessary requirements for NPs to maintain a collaborative relationship in order to care for patients," Kapu says. "Gov. Hochul’s State of the State specifically calls out her desire to permanently remove this obstacle for New Yorkers accessing healthcare."
Support for full practice authority is growing. The National Academy of Medicine's The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report recommends that nurses be allowed to "practice to the full extent of their education and training by removing barriers that prevent them from more fully addressing social needs and social determinants of health and improving healthcare access, quality, and value."
The report also suggests that federal authority should be used to supersede restrictive scope of practice state laws.
The American Medical Association and other physician groups, however, argue collaborations are needed for patient safety.
The last two years has proven otherwise, Kapu says.
"New York has test driven this regulatory model for two years and it’s been successful. It's a step in the right direction to see the governor make removing unnecessary regulation and increasing access to care priorities in her agenda."
Events will include a candlelight vigil in Washington, D.C., to honor nurses who died of COVID-19.
National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest union of RNs, is encouraging nurses nationwide to take part in actions across the country on Thursday, January 13, to demand the hospital industry invest in safe staffing, and for President Joe Biden to keep his campaign promise to protect nurses and prioritize public health.
The day of action at more than 35 locations will include a candlelight vigil in Washington, D.C., at Lafayette Square for nurses who lost their lives to COVID-19, according to a NNU press release.
Nurses are "enraged" at protections being "ripped away" from healthcare workers and the public by the Biden administration, said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN, president of NNU, citing:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shortened the isolation period for nurses and other workers who have tested positive for the virus from 10 days to seven days and no longer require exposed vaccinated and boosted healthcare workers to quarantine.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announcing that it won't make permanent the emergency temporary standard (ETS) on COVID-19 that took effect in June 2021, despite skyrocketing hospitalizations from the Omicron variant.
Lack of government protections, combined with "profit-driven hospital employers which have failed to invest in safe staffing and provide critical health and safety protections" has created unsafe working conditions that are driving nurses from the profession, according to NNU.
"As we enter year three of the deadliest pandemic in our lifetimes, nurses are enraged to see that, for our government and our employers, it’s all about what’s good for business, not what’s good for public health," Triunfo-Cortez said.
"Our employers claim there is a 'nursing shortage,' and that’s why they must flout optimal isolation times, but we know there are plenty of registered nurses in this country," she said. "There is only a shortage of nurses willing to work in the unsafe conditions created by hospital employers and this government’s refusal to impose lifesaving standards."
A NNU survey conducted October to December 2021 indicated that, of the nurses who responded, 83% said at least half of their shifts were unsafely staffed, and 68% said they have considered leaving their position.
Nurses also call on the CDC to strengthen isolation guidelines for healthcare workers and the public, and on OSHA to institute a permanent COVID healthcare standard without delay.
On January 5, NNU joined leading labor organizations and unions representing the country’s nurses and healthcare workers to petition the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to order OSHA to issue a permanent standard and to retain the emergency temporary standard until the permanent standard goes into effect.
Children in that age group can receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster five months after getting their second dose.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is supporting a recommendation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster for children ages 12-15, five months after they have received their second dose.
"Surging cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant along with increasing flu infections are stalling our efforts to keep schools and communities open, to continue extracurricular activities and hobbies, and to relieve exhausted nurses and overwhelmed healthcare facilities," Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of ANA, said in a press release.
"It is imperative that parents and families connect with a pediatrician, a nurse, or a nurse practitioner to gather the facts and ensure that their loved ones are safe and protected," he said.
The highly transmissible Omicron variant is hospitalizing an average of 830 children under age 18 each day—up 33.6% from the average during the previous seven days, according to the CDC's Data Tracker.
In Houston, the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is setting records, with more than 75 children receiving treatment at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH), according to KHOU.
More than one-third of TCH's patients at TCH are younger than 5, so they are not yet eligible to be vaccinated, doctors said.
"The availability of safe and effective vaccines remains one of our strongest defenses against preventable viruses and severe symptoms," Grant said.
"Don't delay—get your children vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu," he said. "And if they are eligible, make an appointment as soon as possible for them get a COVID-19 booster."
'Soothing, immersive' technology has helped decrease Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian nurse stress levels by an average of 34%, nurse leader says.
A California hospital with a national reputation in virtual reality (VR) for pain, patient stress management, patient education, and maternal care has deployed that same cutting-edge technology to help its frontline nurses combat stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Nurses at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California, who experience high levels of stress, particularly from treating COVID-19 patients, began finding relief last March through CenteredVR, a virtual reality–based mindfulness and stress management program developed especially for them by BehaVR.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly four out of 10 nurses reported they felt burned out because of long work hours, greater workloads, poor environments, and caring for significantly ill patients, according to the Well-Being Index. By January 2021, that figure had grown to 70%, according to a study by the International Council of Nurses.
During the second half of 2021, hospitals and health systems battled a tsunami of patients whose respiratory systems were attacked by the highly contagious and deadly delta variant. There's no telling where the burnout rate currently stands.
"We have seen the power of virtual reality–enabled programming to support the mental health and well-being of our patients, so it was a natural fit for us to offer [this] tool to our nurses," says Dr. Robert Louis, chief of neurosurgery, under whose leadership Hoag has become a leader in healthcare VR.
"Mindfulness practices are shown to reduce chronic stress, and CenteredVR combines those principles with the neurological and psychological power of virtual reality, offering our nurses new resources to reduce stress and improve their overall health," Louis says.
'Soothing, immersive' environment
CenteredVR was developed in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine, says Kim Mullen, MSN, RN, Hoag's director nursing professional development, research and Magnet program director.
"It guides users into a soothing, immersive VR environment that helps alleviate stress through educational elements and mindfulness practices," she says.
Over the course of six 20-minute sessions, which can be done in the privacy and comfort of their homes, nurses learn to become less reactive and more resilient to stressors.
"You learn those mindfulness concepts by practicing and training your brain. You learn how to cope better and be more resilient versus go down that negative pathway in helping you cope with stress," Mullen says.
The VR kits are sent to each nurse's home. Including a headset, headphones, and remote control, each kit arrives in an appealing, scented box to conjure a relaxing, spa-like environment, Mullen says.
"It's all about the personal experience," Mullen says.
When Hoag introduced the CenteredVR program, nearly two-thirds of the nursing staff in the COVID-19 unit signed up to participate.
Crystal Watson, RN, initially was unsure about the VR technology.
"We've always had other ways of dealing with stress, but none that had a visual element, so I wasn't sure what to expect," she says.
But once she put on the goggles and plugged in her headphones, she was "floating high above the ocean like a bird," she says.
As Watson began to use CenteredVR regularly, her stress-induced headaches gradually subsided, she says.
Watson and other nurses can choose which session they want to experience based on the level of stress they are feeling, from options designed to target specific feelings of anxiousness, sadness, or hopelessness.
"I fell in love with the 'Body Scan' series," she says. "One minute I was on my couch stressing, the next minute I was watching a beautiful waterfall or meandering through a lush green forest."
Once she focused on the breathing exercises, tension in her neck and shoulders began to relax, she says.
Though many of Hoag's nurses use the technology to decompress, Watson often uses it before work to prepare her for the day ahead, so she can better handle the stressful challenges of a 12-hour shift, she says.
Dropping stress levels
Early results on CenteredVR's impact on users' stress levels have been positive. Among the 70 nurses who have used the program to date, stress levels decreased, on average, by a reported 34%.
The hospital is also currently conducting a nursing research study to determine outcomes, Mullen says.
Further data has been gathered and submitted to the Institutional Review Board, Mullen says.
Nurse feedback has indicated that CenteredVR not only has decreased stress levels, but has helped dispel feelings of isolation and pain caused by stress and anxiety, Mullen says.
"They've said it's almost a getaway or escape, and you don't have to go anywhere," Mullen says.
Some, like Watson, say that VR has helped relieve chronic headaches, muscle tension, and anxiety.
"I always say, who wouldn't relax when you can lay and look at a beautiful waterfall and hear the sound, or walk through a beautiful, lush forest, or be at the beach?" Mullen says. "It's being able to travel when you can't."
COVID-19 patients' pressure injuries were reduced substantially by adding a wound and skin care nurse to the prone-positioning team, study reveals.
Adding a certified wound and skin care nurse to a multiprofessional prone-positioning team significantly reduced the odds of patients with COVID-19 developing pressure injuries at Penn Medicine Princeton Health, says a study published in American Journal of Critical Care.
Healthcare-associated pressure injuries are a significant complication of placing patients prone, and prolonged prone positioning for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with higher rates of new pressure injuries, specifically on the face, cheekbones, and thorax, as well as over bony prominences.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of a multiprofessional pronation team that included a certified wound and skin care nurse who had direct supervision and oversight of all skin preparation procedures and trained the team to care for the patients’ skin.
"Throughout the pandemic, we've been honing our efforts to improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19," said senior author and researcher Kari A. Mastro, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, director of practice, innovation and research, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, Plainsboro, New Jersey.
"The results of our study underscore the value of having clinicians with specialized expertise work together to improve patient outcomes and could redefine the strategies used to prevent pressure injuries in this patient population," she said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Princeton Health formed a multiprofessional team to ensure the safe transition of critically ill patients from supine to prone and avoid common complications such as pressure injury development, accidental extubations, and loss of intravenous catheters.
The team included a certified wound and skin care nurse specialist, a critical care physician, an anesthesiologist and/or respiratory therapist, a critical care nurse, and persons who move and position patients regularly, such as surgical technicians, according to the article.
"In total," the study authors wrote, "we determined that 10 people with specific and specialized expertise were needed to successfully place a critically ill patient prone and avoid the complications well established in the literature."
Before placing a patient prone, the team worked through different techniques and created a refined, systematic, and smooth process, with step-by-step visual aids.
The intervention group was treated by a team that included a certified wound and skin care nurse, while the comparison group was treated by a prone-positioning team that used the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel’s prone guidelines but did not include a certified wound and skin care nurse leading the pressure injury prevention strategies.
Significantly fewer patients in the intervention group had pressure injuries develop—8% compared with 60% in the comparison group. Furthermore, patients in the intervention group had a 97% lower adjusted odds ratio of pressure injury developing than those in the comparison group.
Other characteristics analyzed in the study include patient demographics and clinical characteristics, such as length of stay, number of days proned, the patient’s initial and last scores on the Braden Scale, and the use of a specialty surface or bed.
The article details skin care-related prevention, assessment, and intervention strategies, as well as the step-by-step prone-positioning procedure and specific responsibilities of the various team members.
Nurse practitioners will be at the forefront of pressing healthcare issues, American Association of Nurse Practitioners predicts.
As the fast-growing NP profession looks ahead, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) has identified five key healthcare provider trends to watch over the next year.
1. Demand for NPs Will Continue to Grow
NPs are among those who top the list for the fastest-growing healthcare jobs of the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 325,000 licensed NPs in the United States conduct more than 1 billion patient visits annually, and the NP profession has a projected growth rate of more than 45% in the years ahead.
2. States With the Best Overall Health Give Patients Direct Access to NPs
The 24 states that offer patients full and direct access to NPs, authorizing NPs to practice to the fullest extent of their education and training, correspond to the United Health Foundation's 2021 rankings of the overall healthiest states.
Among the least-healthy states overall, the top slots are held by states with restricted access to NPs.
3. Access to Adequate Primary Care Will Be Challenging Without Changes
More than 80 million Americans lack adequate access to primary care, and shortages are more severe in rural areas, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With 89% of NPs trained to deliver primary care, they are meeting the need for primary care at this critically important time.
NPs represent 1 in 4 primary care providers in rural practices, and more in the 24 states that allow them to practice to the fullest extent of their education and clinical training.
4. NPs Will Continue to Treat COVID-19 and Vaccinate Patients as the Pandemic Persists
NPs' significant role in providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic will multiply as this virus enters its third year. More than 60% of respondents to an AANP survey of NPs had treated or were treating COVID-19 patients in June 2020, and they were offering testing and vaccinations at their practices.
5. Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Sharply Increased During the Pandemic, and NPs Are Needed to Help Treat Patients
As of May 2021, more than 22,000 NPs are authorized by the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe medication-assisted treatment (MAT), with the number of NPs waivered to prescribe MATs doubling between 2019 and 2021.
NPPA is calling for states to modernize outdated laws and enable patients to access NPs and this critically needed care.
"NPs will continue to deliver care in nearly every healthcare setting, including homes, hospitals, clinics and, increasingly, via telehealth—a reflection of the exponential rise of virtual care," Kapu said. "As part of their commitment to primary and preventive care, NPs will remain at the forefront of COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccination, while working to address other pressing healthcare issues."
The AJN Book of the Year program is a time-honored and prestigious competition in which the best nursing publications that have gotten the attention of nursing and healthcare professionals are chosen by a panel of esteemed judges who are part of the healthcare community, according to a press release.
Awards have been given for first, second, and third places across 18 categories, including adult primary care, advanced practice nursing, informatics, and nursing management and leadership.
"Since 1969, AJN’s Book of the Year awards has acknowledged high-quality publications on nursing and healthcare topics," said Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, AJN's editor-in-chief.
"We’re proud that so many nursing faculty look to the award winners when making decisions about resources to educate the next generation of nurses," she added.
The 2021 first-place winners in each category are:
Adult Primary Care:Essential Procedures for Emergency, Urgent, and Primary Care Settings: A Clinical Companion edited by Theresa M. Campo and Keith A. Lafferty. 3rd edition.
Advanced Practice Nursing:Assessment and Multimodal Management of Pain: An Integrative Approach by Maureen F. Cooney and Ann Quinlan-Colwell.
Child Health:Wong’s Essentials of Pediatric Nursing by Marilyn J. Hockenberry, Cheryl C. Rodgers, and David Wilson. 11th edition.
Community/Public Health:Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care edited by Linda McCauley, Robert L. Phillips Jr., Marc Meisnere, and Sarah K. Robinson.
Creative Works:Luminaries of the Past: Stories of Fifty Extraordinary Nurses by Mary Beth Modic and Joyce J. Fitzpatrick.
Critical Care-Emergency Nursing:Essential Procedures for Emergency, Urgent, and Primary Care Settings: A Clinical Companion edited by Theresa M. Campo and Keith A. Lafferty. 3rd edition.
Digital Products:Davis Edge for Safe Maternity and Pediatric Nursing Care by Luanne Linnard-Palmer and Gloria Haile Coats. 2nd edition.
Environmental Health:Maxwell’s Understanding Environmental Health: How We Live in the World by Deborah Alma Falta. 3rd edition.
Gerontologic Nursing:Ebersole and Hess’ Gerontological Nursing and Healthy Aging by Theris A. Touhy and Kathleen Jett. 6th edition.
History and Public Policy:Delivering Quality Healthcare for People with Disability by Suzanne C. Smeltzer.
Informatics:Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Healthcare Outcomes edited by John W. Nelson, Jayne Felgen, and Mary Ann Hozak.
Maternal-Child Health/Prenatal Nursing/Childbirth:Mosby’s Pocket Guide to Fetal Monitoring: A Multidisciplinary Approach by Lisa A. Miller, David A. Miller, and Rebecca L. Cypher. 9th edition.
Medical-Surgical Nursing:Assessment and Multimodal Management of Pain: An Integrative Approach by Maureen F. Cooney and Ann Quinlan-Colwell
Nursing Education/Continuing Education/Professional Development:Veteran-Centered Care in Education and Practice: An Essential Guide for Nursing Faculty edited by Brenda Elliott, Katie A. Chargualaf, and Barbara Patterson.
Nursing Management and Leadership:The Leadership Trajectory: Developing Legacy Leaders-Ship by Patricia Yoder-Wise, Karren Kowalski, and Susan Sportsman.
Nursing Research:Burns and Grove’s The Practice of Nursing Research: Appraisal, Synthesis, and Generation of Evidence by Jennifer R. Gray and Susan K. Grove. 9th edition.
Professional Issues:The Nation of Nurses: A Manual for Revolutionizing Healthcare by Jalil A. Johnson.
Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing:Inpatient Psychiatric Nursing: Clinical Strategies, Medical Considerations, and Practical Interventions edited by Judy L. Sheehan, Joanne M. Matthew, Mary H. Hohenhaus, and Charles Alexandre. 2nd edition.
Schmitz hopes to inspire emergency nurses to take care of themselves and keep pushing forward.
"Emergency nursing is a complex profession, so it’s important for all of us to focus on recharging," she said. "Whether that’s spending time doing a hobby we love, giving back to our communities, or volunteering with the association, my goal is to provide a consistent reminder that we must take care of ourselves."
Schmitz, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, has spent her entire career in emergency nursing, primarily in a community hospital setting.
She has served at a variety of levels and is currently the chief nursing officer for Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford, Maine, where she still cares for patients at the stretcherside.
She joined ENA in 2002 as a new graduate nurse and has been active at the local, state, and national levels ever since.
She served as Maine ENA State Council president and as a member of the council’s board of directors, participated on the ENA Operations Committee in 2016 and 2017, is an active TNCC and ENPC instructor, and served as a board member at the national level.
As ENA's president, she leads more than 50,000 members worldwide who have expertise in triage, patient care, disaster preparedness, and all aspects of emergency care.
"I'm thrilled to lead such a great organization," she said, "and look forward to the triumphs and challenges that lay ahead."
Sharper financial acumen gives nurse leaders a greater chance of getting what they need, CNO says.
When Vickie Swanson, MSN-HCSM, RN CENP, CNOR, was in nursing school studying for her associate degree in the early 1980s, she realized that her chosen profession would require more than instruction in patient care.
"I could see that healthcare was a business and that nursing didn't have some of the tools that it needed to actively come to the table and be heard amongst other business professionals who were non-clinical," says Swanson, chief nursing officer (CNO) of Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, Washington.
She realized as a student that those at the top making decisions were primarily men with a finance background.
"If I'm going to speak their language and get what I need for my team or the care of my patients, I have to at least communicate with them in a language that they understand and know," she says.
Indeed, Swanson relies on her strong financial knowledge that she's accumulated over the years to manage a large portion of the hospital's budget.
"Nurse leaders control the largest part of a hospital labor budget, in some cases the largest part of the overall budget," Douglas writes. "The effectiveness of overseeing this responsibility can mean the difference between an organization’s financial stability and financial turmoil."
'A totally different ballgame'
The nurse leader's role has evolved to require a greater hand in financial and business skills.
"I came into nursing about the time that DRGs (diagnosis-related groups) arrived on the scene," Swanson says. "Prior to that, I don't think [nurse leaders] were really as worried about finances."
"Today, we're at a totally different ballgame," she says, "and if you're not financially savvy, it's really hard to create the business case for attaining what you need, whether it’s the resources for staffing [or] whether it's the resources of equipment to be more efficient."
But the industry isn't keeping up with the need, she says.
"I don't think nursing has ever had a strong understanding of finances and the financial impact of their unit or the cost of healthcare and how that all plays into the role for an organization and caring for a patient," she says.
"I don't think there's a strong understanding because nurses tend to be a personality that is compassionate and caregiving, which is wonderful, and the patient needs to be the center of our focus; however, if we don't keep our eyes on finances and how we're performing financially, the doors are not going to be open for us to be there to care for patients."
Learning on the job
When Swanson was placed in her first managerial position—running an operating room—she possessed a minimum of understanding of the financial workings of running a department within a facility, she says.
Previously, she had done some clinical documentation improvement consulting, where she gained an understanding of DRGs and limitations placed on hospitals and reimbursement.
But productivity was new to her, so she asked a lot of questions of the chief financial officer [CFO] and relied on another manager who mentored her on management.
Her next opportunity took her to Deloitte & Touche, a worldwide consulting company.
"In working with their team members and PPMDs [partner, principle, or managing director], I actually expanded beyond the DRG world more to CDM work [charge description master] and to pricing work, and that really helped give me an understanding of revenue cycle."
Nurses who want to gain financial acumen must pursue it themselves, Swanson says.
"At this point in time and with things that are happening in nursing today, nursing curriculums do not include, until you reach your master's level and then depending on which track you're taking in your master's level, it's not always present," she says. "There is no education and there is no direction to help nurses unless they seek it outside of nursing curriculum for this type of education."
"It is becoming such a part of who and what nursing is that there is a disservice that is happening to continue to do things the way we've always done, rather than preparing people for a healthcare industry that is completely different than it was."
Swanson suggests nurse leaders and those who plan to become nurse leaders find books, sign up for classes, and seek a mentor to teach them about finances.
Swanson helps her team gain financial acumen by mentoring and providing opportunities to learn.
"When we go into budget, I sit there with different part of my team, or as a whole, and we go over things like our operational budget … and other operations and dig down into it and I try to share my knowledge and history and some of the pain points that I've learned," she says.
Her surgical services team, for example, had self-identified areas where they felt like they needed assistance, so Swanson would conduct weekly or biweekly meetings to address such subjects as financials and staffing.
In those meetings, they would review general ledger (GL) accounts to determine why and where they were running over in certain GL accounts, she says.
"That was a way for me to try to mentor and help them grow that awareness."
She also instructs her team on how to negotiate contracts based upon performance by reviewing data, pulling numbers, and forecasting volumes.
"That has helped in being able to go into those negotiations for services and come out with a strong understanding of the numbers and [whether] we are making the best decision for the organization," she says.
Acquisition of capital equipment is one process that Swanson makes sure her nurse leaders understand by looking at reimbursement rates, return on investment, how quickly it will be paid off, and the true need for the equipment.
"When an organization is bringing on new services, or new equipment that they've never had before to provide a new service, you look at things like that," she says. "You try to make a more-informed decision versus is it something the provider wants today—is it the flavor of the month or the flavor of the year for the provider of the specialty?"
Increasing her team's financial acumen will give them a greater chance of getting what they need, Swanson says.
"You're able to walk into a meeting and be heard, as well as you have a greater ability to understand where other individuals may be coming from," she says, "so you're actively taking that initiative to bridge that communication gap, particularly if you're walking into a room with people who are financially driven."
Strengthening communication skills, radical empathy, and the high-dollar outcome of a discrimination lawsuit captured readers' interest in 2021.
Human resources (HR) executives' top reading choices included building basic skills, embracing a new concept, and taking note of a lawsuit against a health system.
These are the top three most-read HR stories posted by HealthLeaders in 2021:
Listening is one of the most important skills leaders need to develop to communicate well and maintain relationships throughout the hospital.
Listening is hard work and failing to listen leads to many of the misunderstandings that make cooperation so difficult.
In addition to active listening, use simple language. If physician leaders speak or write in a swirl of obscure terms and jargon, they will just confuse people. There is nothing wrong with using plain, direct language to convey a message.
Also, remember simple courtesies. "Thank you" are two words that are used less often than they should be in the hospital environment. Good manners and appreciation foster a congenial atmosphere and motivate staff to perform better.
Medical staff leaders and members deserve thanks for the hard work they do for their patients, colleagues, and the hospital.
Consider sending personal notes to physicians to let them know you appreciate the job they did on a particular quality improvement committee project, or to a new physician leaders’ family members thanking them for sharing their loved one’s time with the hospital.
The idea that employers should empathize with their workers is relatively new.
Just ask Bob Cratchit how empathetic his employer, Mr. Scrooge, was in Victorian-era England. Of course, by the end of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, and thanks to some supernatural intervention, Scrooge came around and developed genuine sympathy for the plight of the Cratchit family.
But sympathy is not the same as empathy.
First, sympathy is defined as a "feeling," whereas empathy is defined as an "action." Second, sympathy is caring about or being sorry about someone else’s misfortune; empathy is deeper—understanding and vicariously experiencing another’s feelings.
Empathy is important in the employer-employee context because it better motivates concrete action and changes in policies. An employer that knows what it’s like to struggle to afford childcare is more likely to offer employer-sponsored, on-site day care than an employer that simply "feels sorry" for workers struggling to pay for childcare.
This is where the concept of “radical empathy” comes in. Radical empathy involves actively putting yourself in others’ shoes you’d like to empathize with—to the extent reasonably possible.
In an article for Fortune, Nicole Goodkind wrote how corporate leaders were put in the shoes of visually impaired employees by being blindfolded and led through a series of exercises where they were asked to talk with one another without revealing their official titles.
Radical empathy may sound, well, radical, but the trend illustrates both the importance and the challenge of creating genuine empathy toward employees to drive meaningful discussion and change.
The attorney for a former top executive of Novant Health who was awarded $10 million in October by a federal jury says the discrimination lawsuit was not a statement against diversity and inclusion initiatives.
David Duvall's 2019 lawsuit said he lost his job as senior vice president of marketing and communication the year before because of Novant's effort to diversify its top leadership—and he is a white male.
The firing came without warning or explanation shortly before his fifth anniversary with the North Carolina-based health system, and he was replaced by two women, one Black and one white, according to the lawsuit.
Duvall accused Novant of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race and gender discrimination in the workplace.
"The jury learned that Duvall was a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion at Novant; that was one irony in his termination," his attorney, S. Luke Largess, said in a statement.
Novant plans to appeal, according to a statement issued by the company.
"Novant Health is one of thousands of organizations to put in place robust diversity and inclusion programs, which we believe can co-exist alongside strong non-discriminatory policies that extend to all races and genders, including white men," the statement said. "It’s important for all current and future team members to know that this verdict will not change Novant Health’s steadfast commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity for all."