Sharpening Your Saw: Communicating Quality via “Road Shows”
Becky Dodge MBA, RN
Leslie Johnson BSN, RN
Sherri Morris ADN, RN, CCRN

$3.95 		Journal of Nursing Care Quality
March 2010 
Volume 25  Number 1
Pages 13 - 16
 
  PDF Version Available!

ABSTRACT
IN October 2007, the University of North Carolina Hospitals Department of Nursing implemented a “new and improved” shared governance structure composed of 5 councils reporting to an executive council; one of the councils is the Nursing Quality Council. Several committees that liaison with the Quality Council are Falls, Restraint, Skin, Nursing Performance Improvement, and an interdisciplinary Pain Committee. This article describes the progression of communication within the Quality Council and how the idea of the Road Shows evolved.To facilitate ease and timeliness of communication, each council (and some committees) posts 3 “bullet points” on the intranet following their meetings, allowing staff to learn about the important issues discussed in the meeting. Minutes of the councils are also posted on the intranet for those who want more detailed information. However, additional issues not easily summarized in a bullet point needed to be addressed, for example, Core Measures and changes to the electronic charting system (eChart). Other quality care issues involving nursing that extended beyond the committees that liaison with the Quality Council also needed to be communicated, as in the use of the Important Message from Medicare Form and concerns with using wipes in the hospital. In summer 2008, managers began e-mailing a weekly update on Friday to decrease the number of e-mails sent during the week. The updates contained information pertinent to each individual unit.Despite repeatedly raising these issues at committee meetings and through weekly updates sent out by the managers, some staff members were not receiving and retaining the information for a variety of reasons. Staff began to give the Council feedback such as “there is too much e-mail” and “my mailbox is always full,” occurring when staff members had been off for a couple of days. Other complaints included limited e-mails about the information deemed important by staff

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