Children's Hospitals Today - Spring 2023 - 17

WORKFORCE / FEATURE
from IHI. " They are very approachable
people, " she says.
To get started, the team had a lot
of " What matters to you? " conversations
with staff. They tried a variety of
formats, including small groups and
written questionnaires. But the team
found that the most fruitful approach
was spontaneous, one-to-one
conversations-when
a team member
stopped a colleague
in the hallway
and asked,
we chat
" Can
for a
few minutes? "
They found that
staff tended to
be more forthcoming
in these
informal dialogues
without the pressure
of a larger audience or
having the time for a dedicated
meeting. The conversations
followed a general set of questions:
Why do you work here? What makes
a good day? What gets in the way of a
good day? What are your biggest barriers
to being able to provide care?
These questions led to large-scale
Adapting the framework
While there is a hierarchy to the framework,
an industry like health care can
be full of challenges that require organizations
to reorient their priorities.
When RSV, COVID-19 and influenza collided
for a tripledemic last year, Sandhu
adjusted their plan to account for
" Our people are our
most treasured assets.
Without our people, we
can't do anything in
a hospital. "
employees' safety.
" In 30 years, I had
never experienced
any sort of surge
like that, " she
says. " We had to
shift
focus
tirely. "
enSandhu
and
her team
used
various
methods to learn
what mattered to
employees in real
time. They used an app
they had developed and
a QR code staff could scan to
rate the kind of day they had on a fiveand
long-term efforts as well as some
small, quick wins. One example of
the smaller changes at MassGeneral
reflects Joy in Work's daily improvement
component: Physicians had
become frustrated with pagers, particularly
because they had trouble
getting ahold of the person who
paged them. So, the team adopted
a secure two-way messaging app,
which physicians could download on
their personal phones. Now, paging is
reserved for high-acuity situations,
and the app makes communication
more efficient.
These kinds of quality-of-life changes
quickly got employees on board with
the Joy in Work approach. " People are
engaged in a way that they weren't
before, " Carter says.
point scale and provide comments. They
discovered that in addition to needing
staffing support, employees needed support
for traumatic or stressful events.
This insight revealed a different way of
recognizing staff during a challenging
time. " We reprioritized the physical and
psychological safety component and put
the others on pause, " Sandhu says. " The
idea was that we can't be prioritizing
autonomy and control, rewards and recognition,
when people do not feel safe. "
Sandhu's team launched several
initiatives in response: chaplain visits,
a space for debriefs, a wellness
area where employees can decompress,
and-one of the most popular
additions-massage therapists who go
floor to floor giving 10-minute treatments
to staff, day and night.
Like Sandhu, Carter's Joy in Work priorities
shifted suddenly when faced with
a major crisis. When the pandemic first
arrived, the hospital converted the pediatric
unit to an adult unit on an emergency
basis. After that, Carter says the joy
wasn't as apparent, so they decided to go
back to basics and focus on psychological
well-being and wellness.
The team launched several projects to
improve wellness and resilience, such
as redesigning the morning discharge
huddle, spearheading a newsletter to
staff, and displaying " joy communication
boards " on which the team could
share information and staff could provide
feedback and note their needs-
always keeping up with what mattered
to them so they could adapt accordingly.
Future plans
Looking forward, both CHOC and
MassGeneral plan to refocus on largerscale
changes. Though the pandemic
set back MassGeneral's larger projects,
" change takes time, " Carter says. " It
will take multiple changes to find what
works. And you need to stay positive
about that journey. "
For CHOC, it's early in their process
to adopt the framework, and the next
step is to make some concrete decisions.
About 30 multi-disciplinary leaders
from across CHOC are convening
this spring to see where they should
take
their
learnings,
including
the
resources and tools they need, how
they will measure results and where
and how they will spread efforts
that have already been spreading joy
across their teams.
Perlo says organizations can find
success in this effort by starting small,
listening closely and going where there
is initial energy for change. Test strategies
and improvements before making
larger-scale changes, really listen to
understand staff members' needs and
experiences, and tap into a leader or
champion with willingness to get creative
and get started.
Megan McDonnell Busenbark is a
writer and content strategist
based in Omaha, Nebraska.
Send questions or comments to
magazine@childrenshospitals.org.
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Spring 2023
17
Children's Hospitals Today - Spring 2023

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