Improving Communications in an ER

¶ … Communications as a Supervisor There have been many trends within the healthcare industry that have worked to both improve the ability to communicate as well hinder it in some regards. Despite many pressures to cut costs related to healthcare supervisors, or middle-managers, this role within the organization remains as important as ever. Supervisors are often expected to complete more in their daily roles with less resources at their disposal than ever before. This makes clear, concise, and relevant communications one of the critical success factors in any emergency room environment.

Fortunately, there are many technological tools and mediums of communication available than ever before. This analysis will give a brief introduction to some of the trends that have influenced middle managers and supervisors in this industry as well as provide a discussion that focuses on some of the critical issues in communication that supervisors will face in this role. Introduction There was a movement in the 1990s to curb the rising costs that were associated with healthcare middle management in organizations.

The role of middle management and first-line supervisors in healthcare has been a focus of research since the 1990's. During this period a trend was identified in which organizations were attempting to eliminate this level of bureaucracy from healthcare organizations in order to reduce overhead (Embertson, 2006). However, even though this was originally targeted as a cost saving measure, it was later realized that middle managers can be an important asset to a healthcare organization and that they make important contributions to the communication capacity in a department.

Furthermore, a facilitator of communication is one of the most important roles that is present in an emergency room environment. This environment is defined by a fast paced and dynamic environment in which effective communication can make the difference between life and death. Literature Review Effective communication is one of the critical success factors in any healthcare organization; but it is especially critical in an emergency services environment. Communication must be successfully facilitated throughout the team on different levels.

For example, the supervisor must facilitate information transfer between doctors and the nursing staff, nurses must communicate amongst themselves through shift-changes and other key events, and the entire staff must also be able to communicate with patients to ensure they have key information about health history or current symptoms or ailments.

Studies have even indicated that there is a strong correlation between nurses working in an emergency room environment, communication competence, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction and it is recommended that training programs that are customized to individual characteristics such as self-efficacy and job satisfaction to improve the communicative competence of ER nurses (Park, Jeoung, & Sok, 2015). Effective communication is also critical in preventing poor outcomes in this environment.

For example, the Joint Commission performed a study to find root causes for all reported sentinel events between 1995 and 2005 and found that poor communications was the most common cause of negative events in the United States (68%) and the lack of technical competence was responsible for only 20% of events (McKinley, 2014). For implication for such evidence in an emergency room are profound. It means that patient outcomes can be improved more through improving communications than through technical training and development.

Despite all the progress that medical competency and technological development has ushered it, communication still represents one of the biggest challenges regarding improving the quality of care provided in an ER. However, technology can also offer many solutions in regards to improving communications in this environment.

New technologies are revolutionizing visits to the emergency room (ER), resulting in reduced wait times, improved time management and faster treatment of serious emergencies; in some locations, better communication has improved outcomes and efficiency in the ER before a patient even reaches the hospital (Humana, 2014). New mediums of communication allow doctors and staff to access medical records instantaneously. Some platforms have adopted web-based solutions that can allow intra- and inter-emergency department communication in real time (Oregon Health Leadership Council, 2015).

Conclusion Effective communication is one of the primary critical success factors that determines the quality of care that is delivered. Not only is it important to patients, but effective communication is also a vital element in running an effective nursing team as it has been shown to correlate with factors such as communication competence, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction. In fact, some research indicates that communication can actually be more important than technical competency in emergency departments. Recommendations There are many ways that communication can be improved in an.