Editor's Note A surgeon’s transformational leadership skills were associated with improved OR team behavior, in this study. Each one-point increase in a surgeon’s transformational score corresponded to three times more information-sharing behaviors and nearly five and a half times more voice behaviors among the team members. With each one-point increase…
Advocating for patients and staff alike, winning the respect of physicians, and driving growth are among the achievements that have made Kathryn Adamson, MBA, RN, the 2015 OR Manager of the Year. Adamson is administrative director of perioperative and trauma services at the University of Utah Health Care (UUHC) in…
Building healthy relationships between leaders and employees is vital to the success of any organization. It’s especially important in perioperative services because of the teamwork needed to provide safe patient care. OR leaders must invest in their employees by fostering trust, job embeddedness, and employee commitment, empowerment, and accountability. …
Our Take In a study to gain insight into how nurse leaders are influencing the use of performance data to improve nursing care, two themes emerged: Getting relevant, reliable, and timely data into the hands of nurses The leaders' ability to “connect the dots” in working with different stakeholders. A…
Certain words and phrases are used frequently in nursing—sometimes so frequently that their true meaning is lost. For some, the term “shared governance” is one of those. What is shared governance? “A dynamic staff-leader partnership that promotes collaboration, shared decision making, and accountability for improving quality of care, safety, and…
Every perioperative services staff member, at every level, contributes to the success or failure of the department. Exceptional leaders understand this, and they are most successful when they discourage intimidation and invite everyone to take ownership of their roles. Teamwork in the OR is the next frontier in quality perioperative…
Many healthcare professionals are all too familiar with the phenomenon of becoming burned out. In the midst of the intense work environment and long hours, they often struggle to remember why they do what they do, and they become disconnected. When Rich Bluni, RN, LHRM, kicks off this year’s OR…
The changing healthcare environment is forcing physicians and hospitals to find new ways of working together to achieve top performance. As payers move to value-based purchasing and providers raise the bar on quality, efficiency, and cost savings, a sustainable model that drives results is essential. One effective physician–hospital model built…
Providing dependably excellent care for all patients all of the time is the essence of high reliability healthcare, as defined by the Joint Commission in its 2013 report. Two large health systems—Kaiser Permanente and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital—are on the path to becoming highly reliable organizations. In recent years, improved processes…
Privacy violations, work distractions, wasting time—with all these risks, who needs social media? You do. Social media is key for OR leaders to successfully manage their professional lives. Savvy leaders accept that social media is a two-sided coin. “The reality is that every post, Tweet, and text is filled with…