Can you hear me?
Patricia Iyer MSN RN LNCC CLNI and Barbara Levin BSN RN ONC LNCC
University of Pennsylvania, 4th Annual Patient Safety Conference
Philadelphia, PA
March 29, 2007

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has defined communication problems as the number one cause of sentinel events. This program focuses on three factors which can contribute toward communication issues: inexperience, generational and cultural styles. The speakers will share concrete strategies for helping inexperienced people deal with conflict and the need to be a patient advocate. It will explore the differences in generations of nurses and how these affect the work ethic and values of the nurse. Multicultural differences also affect the perspectives and the willingness to take a stand to advocate for a patient at risk for injury. Suggestions for recognizing and embracing generational and cultural differences will be discussed.

This program explores the ways that nurses can improve communication with patients, staff, and the healthcare team. The role of the nurse as patient advocate and the importance of the chain of command are stressed. Patient safety practices drawn from the medical error reduction movement are presented. Participants will learn how to handle confrontations that have a direct impact on patient safety. The program is appropriate for all levels of nursing practice. The more seasoned participant will identify ways to teach and support those with less experience in communication focused on improving patient safety.

This program will include actual legal cases in which communication factored into the injury of a patient. The information will be presented from two perspectives 1. the bedside nurse who has encountered a variety of situations in which intuition and advocacy were pivotal in the successful diagnosis and thus interventions were implemented and 2. the nursing expert witness who has reviewed hundreds of medical negligence cases and is an expert on nursing liability.

Recommendations for initiatives for increasing staff nurses’ communication awareness will be presented. Research data will support the findings of contentment as a factor in retention. Recruitment and orientation are expensive. This factor in combination with the national staff average attrition rate of 20% culminates in large expenditures. Communication can be the key factor in a successful work environment!