Healthcare and nursing are collaborative by nature, and collaboration is fueled by communication. A collaborative modus operandi greases the wheels of healthcare, improves outcomes and ultimately impacts the "double bottom line" of people and profits.
Since two potentially powerful results of collaboration are satisfied staff and healthier patients, it behooves nurse leaders and healthcare administrators to champion collaboration and healthy communication as praiseworthy means to myriad positive ends.
Collaboration and communication
Both collaboration and communication are intrinsic to healthcare delivery. In a collaborative environment, transparent and skillful communication is a key trait that strengthens teams, keeps the patient and his or her loved ones informed and involved, and allows potentially disparate arms of the clinical team to stay in the proverbial loop.
Effective communication is not necessarily taught in medical school or nursing school, thus members of the care team must learn communication techniques on their own, unless their employer values communication highly enough to provide specific training.
Meanwhile, leaders with a background in business/healthcare administration are also unlikely to have received grounding in the most cutting-edge communication techniques during their education.
Communication is a learned skill; collaborative medical and nursing practice can be strengthened through the proactive adoption of techniques that foster it, especially if administration leads the way.
Healthcare facilities that claim to value communication and collaboration cannot simply pay lip service and expect results. Rather, progressive employers invest resources in training and support that promote success.
Administrators and managers can model positive communication by adopting a collaborative and transparent style as a guide and example for staff.
Cognitive dissonance
If the administration of a hospital propagates the notion of skillful communication among staff while itself being secretive, opaque and withholding, staff will be well aware of such obvious double standards.
When healthcare leadership propagates a "do what I say not what I do" stance related to communication, this can result in cognitive dissonance among staff. This leads to cynicism, antipathy, organizational dysfunction and a culture of mistrust.
Such schisms are unhealthy for the workplace and trickle down to patient care. Unhappy, cynical, mistrustful nurses are potentially less diligent about aspects of their job performance when their leaders are perceived as disingenuous.
A work culture that fails to value positive communication will likely turn a blind eye to bullying, harassment and other aberrant behaviors that contribute to burnout, attrition, poor patient outcomes and a decrease in HCAHPS scores and profits.
A positive turn
Forward-thinking healthcare leaders see the fostering of healthy communication and collaboration as a crucial aspect of progressive leadership. Such leaders champion open communication, train staff in the most effective techniques, and use transparency to create a positive, healthy workplace culture.
For those leaders who choose the path of least resistance in terms of communication and collaboration, the potential costs of inaction are legion.
Cultivate communication, be an advocate for transparency, and create progressive, healthy, functional healthcare teams that deliver powerfully effective care.
