To communicate effectively, write it!
Short pieces in newsletter get key points across
All is not lost if you miss your inservice training at Dale Medical Center in Ozark, AL. Instead, the information literally will appear at your fingertips.
Last March, the health care facility began publishing an employee newsletter called Educational Highlights for staff who miss inservice sessions. "We use the newsletter to summarize inservices that are given," explains Karen Ward, RN, CIC, education director.
In the March 1996 premier issue, key information on patient and family education was summed up in a short paragraph for those who missed the inservice training. Staff who missed the inservice training on ostomy care and patient teaching were asked to view the session on video and review the new teaching packet available on med/surg floors. "The newsletter has not affected the attendance at inservices. It’s remained about the same," says Ward.
Other regular newsletter features include information on new patient education materials available to staff, newly introduced teaching forms, community education efforts, and news updates from various departments. One issue by the quality management department reminded dietary, pharmacy, and nursing staff to document food-drug interaction education prior to or upon discharge.
Tied in with educator awards
And when a new documentation form was implemented, the newsletter not only provided the means to announce it, but also helped ensure compliance. Staff who did a good job of documenting received the Patient Educator of the Month Award. To select a patient educator winner each month, the assistant patient education director chooses a floor and audits 10 charts. The person whose name shows up most often on the documentation form in those 10 charts receives a gift basket, a certificate, and mention in the newsletter. For the sake of economy, prizes are gift baskets assembled from sale items at Wal-Mart.
To make sure the information reaches all employees, stacks of the two-page newsletter are left at all nursing stations, department heads and physicians receive a copy in their mailboxes, and a copy is mailed to physicians’ offices.
While there is no guarantee that employees will read the newsletter, most do, Ward says. One department head has even made it required reading for his staff.
The newsletter is created on the computer in the patient education department. Ward uses WordPerfect software, which has templates for creating the copy. "It’s already formatted. You just fill in the information," she explains.
It takes Ward about 90 minutes to write the newsletter from information she collects in a folder during the three months before its deadline. She also contacts other departments such as quality management, home health, and nursing to see if department heads have any information to include. Ward’s secretary then makes copies on colored paper ordered from the purchasing department.
[For more information on writing a newsletter contact: Karen Ward, Education Director, Dale Medical Center, 100 Hospital Ave., Ozark, AL. Telephone: (334) 774-2601, Ext. 522.]
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