Teamwork Tips for Nursing

– In this video, I’m gonna
talk to you about team work and why it is so important
in the nursing profession. (gentle music) Hey, what’s up guys? Nurse Jenny here. Today I’m gonna share with
you my thoughts on team work and why I think it is so important to you, to your team, and to your patient. And do me a favor, if you find
this video valuable to you, share the love, hit the subscribe button, and give it a thumbs up. Let’s get into the video. I think we can all agree that
no nurse goes into nursing because they like working alone. You know, we like to have
that patient interaction, like to interact with our colleagues, and we all work to get the
best outcome for our patients. We have a huge team, so we’re
talking doctors, nurses, physios, the diet office,
pathology, speech path, the list goes on. We all have to come together for one goal, and it is for the patient
to get well and go home. So what are some potential
issues with team work? I know that when I find
when our team work fails, it is often when communication
has broken down somewhere. So if someone hasn’t
passed the message along, or the doctor hasn’t communicated what he wanted for the patient, a relative has said they’ve rung 50 times, they don’t know what’s going
on, who took that phone call. Like we need to keep getting
the communication going. Another issue is also when you have nurses who don’t like playing in a team, so they might not like
being told what to do, or they just put their head down, they wanna do their work and then go home. The problem with that is we don’t, no one goes home until the work is done. So if you’re done with your
work, you go help someone else. Nursing is the only job
where you’ve done your work, you get to do more work, because someone else
hasn’t finished theirs, but that’s how it is. Another issue with team work and where communication can
break down is shift change. It’s a very dangerous time
where things can get missed, because people are just so
focused on clocking out, going home, see ya later as someone else is taking over 24 hour care. But in that moment, it is
crucial that you do hand over, a proper hand over where
you go through everything, you know, all the orders, go
through the medication charts, and just communicate to the next shift. If you haven’t done something
or something needs to be done, it needs to be communicated. Often that can get missed when someone is rushing out the door. Another issue with team
work and communication can be that the A team isn’t always on. And what I mean by that
is you don’t always work with your favorite people. Sometimes you have to work with people that you may not
necessarily like or people that you wouldn’t have chosen to hang out with outside of work. But the reality is you’re at work, you have to work together
for the best patient outcome. And that’s hard too, because, you know, if you have little squabbles and issues with other colleagues, that’s not gonna help the communication, the team work, and the end
product for our patients. But you know what, you
have to put that aside and just focus on the goal, and that is we’re all gonna get home by the end of this shift, and everyone’s gonna have had a good day, and all the patients are happy. I’d love to hear from you guys. Please comment below and let me know what makes or breaks the
team work in your workplace. I think we can all agree,
team work is not as easy as it sounds, and it can
go wrong at any time. Trust me, I know. So what facilitates team work? In my personal opinion, it helps when you work
with people that you like. But unfortunately, you don’t always get to
choose who you work with. You gotta get the job done
anyways, but it does help. Keeping that communication
line open at all times, you know, talk to your team
leader, talk to the patient, talk to the unum, talk to the doctor. You gotta always keep that
communication line open. And I also find that it helps tremendously if you actually care about
the nurse next to you. You know, if you think about it this way, we’re not, none of us are gonna get home before the work is done. And if the new nurse is
struggling with her patients, your work is done, it helps
to go over there and say, hey, what can I do to help? If you have a minute to sit
down, no one’s had a break, you know, it would be
nice to go and help out so that everyone can have a break. And also, starting the day
with a positive outlook from the start can go
a long way, trust me. I know a few negative
Nancys who come on shift, and you can already feel it. You know what, this is gonna be horrible. I’m gonna have a horrible day. So if you’re just stay positive, you know, we’re there for the patients
so that they can get better and go home, and then we get to go home. So when you’ve found a
good team to work with, give them a high five, tell
them they’ve done a great job, pat yourself on the back, because your patients are
probably the happiest, because you all have worked together. Thanks for watching my
video on team work guys. I hope that you’re now
thinking about how you’re gonna improve the team
work where you work. If you have any questions,
comments, queries, or anything that you would like to add, pop it in the comments below. I would love to hear from you. Thanks again, I’ll see
you on my next video. And remember, listen with your heart. (upbeat electronic music)

Written by Raul Dinwiddie

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