It’s no secret that there is a long history of bullying and incivility in healthcare. On this episode of Leading with Health, Dr. Renee Thompson joins me to talk about how this plays out – and what we can do about it.
Dr. Thompson is the CEO and Founder of the Healthy Workforce Institute. She has 28 years’ experience as a clinical nurse, nurse educator, quality manager and nurse executive. She helps healthcare organizations cultivate healthy workforces by eliminating bullying and incivility.
Highlights include:
14:30 – RT: “Think about the wisdom of a nurse who’s been a nurse for 30 40 years, but yet think about the newness and the innovation and the different mindset that the younger nurses are bringing to health care. We should be embracing that. Not battling against each other.”
16:30 – RT: “The mindset of a Boomer nurse is that they want to be recognized for their experience.”
16:50 – RT: “I teach new nurses to say to that older nurse, ‘You’ve been a nurse here for what? 40 years? Wow. I bet there are some things that you can teach me that I didn’t learn in school. Will you help me?’ You recognize that experience also counts for something. And they’ll say, ‘Oh honey, come on. I’ll take you under my wing.'”
21:30 – RT: “It’s that Gen Xer who can be the one to bridge that gap between the two – Boomers and Millennials.”
22:56 – RT “We cannot just tell people how not to behave. We have to teach them how to counter that negative bias and teach them what to do.”
23:20 – RT: “We started this whole Kindness Revolution about a year and a half ago. And it was about bringing kindness back to healthcare to eliminate – and tip the balance away from – cruelty.”
27:30 – JM: “You would be better at caring for someone else if you were able to take care of yourself first.”
29:30 – RT: “One way in particular that I find is very helpful (in showing you value someone) is, when anybody is in your department, knowing that person’s name and saying their name.”
30:00 – RT: “We have to stop allowing somebody of a higher rank to treat other people with cruelty just because of the role that they play.”
30:13 – JM: “Think about it – what’s going to bring healthcare to its knees first, that surgeon not being there or the people cooking the food or cleaning not being there?”
30:30 – JM: “We just decide that some things are worth more than others. Even when, in practical terms, the people at the bottom of the hierarchy are the ones that are absolutely essential to be there. There’s nobody who’s not essential.”
31:39 – RT: “I said to the medical director there, imagine what it would feel like for you to say to this brand new nurse, ‘Hey, I know you’re brand new here and I’ve been here for a really long time, but here’s the deal. I need your eyes and ears wide open because I might miss something. If you see that I’ve missed something, or you think I’m making a mistake, I want you to tell me.’ Can you imagine being a brand new nurse and having the medical director say to you, ‘I’m not perfect and I need your help.'”
Leading with Health is hosted by Jennifer Michelle. Jennifer has a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology and is a certified EMT. As President of Michelle Marketing Strategies, Jennifer specializes in healthcare marketing. She is on a mission to help women find their voice so they can create a stronger, more responsive healthcare system.