Today’s discussion around the informed consent process was really enlightening. A common thread amongst both doctors and nurses was that there was extremely minimal education related to the importance and weight of informed consent before starting in the field. When I was a new nurse, I remember MDs coming up to me asking me to “witness” a consent even though I had not been in the room. Even now, I have seen some doctors place a communication order over EHR stating “Nursing, please witness consent in chart” (which also ties into the discussion from Day 1 about how EHR can hurt communication with MDs and RNs). Reflecting after the discussion, I now don’t think this was oversight by the MD but more of a product of lack of education related to informed consent during training. If informed consent was emphasized in nursing and medical school as a “shared decision-making process”… Continue reading →

Though we started the morning of Day 1 with a “safety story,” I really feel like the critical importance of quality and safety wasn’t anchored until the group watched the Lewis Blackman story. In my notes, I underlined  “calling for help when uncertain is an important characteristic of safety cultures and empowers MDs and RNs to reduce medical errors.” The idea of “calling for help” or, stated better as “calling for guidance,” is something that as an older nurse, I love to teach to new graduate nurses and am never ashamed to say I do every day at my job. Where I currently work, if new nurses are not asking questions, then we get worried! Asking questions (or better phrased as “asking for guidance”) is a cornerstone of transparency. The ability of a new nurse to be transparent in saying “I am admitting I don’t… Continue reading →