Carol Culbertson, Director of Nursing
Audubon Surgery Center, CO
Carol: Well, sharing stories with not only my team but with other involved facilities, such as the conference calls that we have done, has been infinitely invaluable, or infinitely valuable. Sharing data from the patient safety culture assessment baseline puts the plan in perspective and allows the staff to view their colleagues’ active participation in the facility and to view the personal feeling that they have about their own facility, too. And I think, no matter how much you think you know about your facility, when that is put down on paper after you’ve done the whole group, everyone is a little bit surprised about the results, so, whether it’s a good surprise or a bad surprise. And it, therefore it allows for change. It reveals that there might be a little bit of a need for change. So, sharing that alone was huge, the patient safety culture assessment baseline. And that was the first thing I had issues with, you know, gathering data for that. That was where I had the obstinate anesthesiologist in particular, but, you know, after I just kept visiting with him and showed personal interest in his personal life and spent some time with him, cajoled him a little bit, after a couple of weeks he turned in that form, too. So, you know, a lot of it is not only sharing stories, but sharing concern for that individual that may be a little bit tough to turn around. I think that’s helped a lot, too. And as we progress throughout this study, we will share the renewal data and feedback at all times and that they all participate in. Nobody wants to work on a project that they never see the results on. You know, well, why are we doing this? So, showing them those graphs that are returned to us from AHRQ has been infinitely helpful. And I think most of the story sharing not only comes from within the facility, but once again like I said, getting on those conference calls and utilizing them, you learn from other facilities, what they’re doing, and what may or may not work. It’s definitely a group effort, and it’s not just within this one facility, it’s the entire group of facilities that we are working on. So, I can’t stress upon the fact enough that it’s a good idea to get into communication with several different facilities and get input from them as well.
