Don’t let projects get stuck in committee
Plan, assist, remind members of meetings
Almost every hospital has one a patient and family education committee. Its purpose is to standardize education across the continuum of care and make sure the tools for effective education are available to staff.
Yet at many institutions, the hospitalwide committee is a patch of quicksand where projects and materials often sink into oblivion.
"With the current health care environment, the reduction in staff and many people doing two jobs, there often isn’t enough time to go to committee meetings anymore," says Louise Villejo, MPH, CHES, director of patient education at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
How do you make sure your hospital’s patient education committee remains viable? Try a few of these suggestions from your colleagues:
• Develop a strategic plan.
The No. 1 reason committees are ineffective is because members don’t see the value or the purpose of the group, says Sandra Cornett, RN, MS, PhD, patient education coordinator at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus. To make sure committee members share the same vision, Cornett organizes a one-day retreat every two years to establish goals, discuss major problem areas in patient education and identify specific tasks that need to be accomplished.
Once a strategic plan is hammered out, the patient educator must keep the committee focused, Cornett says.
• Keep size manageable.
Rather than appoint a representative from each of 13 outpatient clinics associated with the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, the patient/family education committee chair asked for one representative. The same process was used for the inpatient med/surg units.
"If you are trying to include too many people, you are less likely to have a cohesive group so you need to select representatives," says Candace Stiklorius, RN, MSN, staff development instructor and committee vice chair. Each department then has a subcommittee and the representative acts as a liaison for these two entities, she explains.
• Follow an action plan.
Create an action plan for every project. It should identify the tasks required, who is involved, and the target completion date. Use the action plan at every meeting and review its progress, Cornett says. (For example of action plan, see p. 9.)
To keep up momentum, groups need to see progress, Villejo advises. List the steps so committee members can see that something is getting accomplished, she says. For example, steps in developing a booklet might include creating an outline, selecting people to write the copy, editing, securing committee approval, patient evaluation, securing medical approval, layout, and printing. A checklist works well, Villejo says.
Make things simple
Although a deadline is important, make sure that it is realistic, says Mary Loftus, RN, BSN, CDE, patient education coordinator at Nyack (NY) Hospital. "If you set goals that are unrealistic, you set yourself up for failure," she explains.
• If possible, streamline the process.
At Nyack Hospital, most patient education handouts are written by the patient education coordinator, reviewed by an expert, and then adopted by the committee. It’s best to make things as simple as possible, says Loftus.
To speed the approval process on handouts, include a cover letter with the material that gives the content experts a time frame to complete their critique, suggests Madeline Albanese, RN, MSN, manager of patient education at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. "I let them know that if I haven’t heard from them within the time frame, I assume they are in agreement with the contents of the draft," she explains.
• Make meetings productive.
It is also important not to waste people’s time, says Stiklorius. Follow an agenda so all business is covered and members don’t get sidetracked. The patient and family education committee at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center meets for 90 minutes with an agenda that includes reports from the subcommittee chairs and departmental reports.
To make the best use of time, the entire patient education committee at The Ohio State University Medical Center meets for about 20 minutes at each monthly meeting and then breaks into subcommittees for the rest of the two-hour meeting. In that way, the sub-groups don’t have to meet outside the main meeting. "After a couple meetings, the sub-group makes their recommendations to the committee," says Cornett.
• Put key people on the committee.
Although a patient education manager does not usually have the power to select committee members, make sure the department manager understands the purpose for the committee and the role of a committee member, says Cornett. If you have someone in mind, suggest that individual. If not, explain the level of authority the member needs to have. Committee members are most effective if they have decision-making power or direct access to people at that level. "If I don’t know who I want, I make it clear I need somebody in a particular type of position such as a first-line manager vs. a staff person," says Cornett. "If you don’t guide the department head, he or she will give you whoever is available."
It is also important to include key representatives from each area of the hospital involved in patient education, says Loftus, including physicians, home care, pharmacy, and the medical library.
• Define member duties and be persistent.
Let members know what you expect. Provide structure but give them enough authority to decide on recommendations and implement them as a group, Cornett advises. "If you are the only one making the decisions they won’t want to be a part of the committee," she says.
Vallejo recommends a little persistence with unproductive members. If a committee member’s input is vital to the completion of a project, meet with that person individually, she suggests.
• Remind staff of meetings.
To ensure attendance, send committee members a reminder a week before the meeting, Loftus advises. Then have the hospital operator announce the meeting on the loudspeaker just before it begins.
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