High Reliability through Charge Nurse Huddles: Improving communication to Decrease Absenteeism

Abstract: It is important we show staff we as leaders are listening to their concerns and frustrations. Lack of communication with immediate supervisor is a cause of absenteeism among nurses, and that absenteeism leads to decreased quality of care, disrupted work routines, and increased workload for staff that are present. Communication is a proven tool to help develop teamwork, reduce absenteeism, and manage conflicts. Staff commitment to the workplace can be increased by management working toward a democratic style of supervision with increased open communication to decrease staff absenteeism. Absence of or poor communication creates a negative work environment and leads to absenteeism due to staff being discouraged in relation to their work processes. In these unprecedented times, Staffing Operations at Covenant Medical Center has seen an increase in absenteeism by nursing staff. This project strove to decrease absenteeism in the float pool by 30 percent through utilization of Charge Nurse Huddles to disseminate information to staff and open up honest communication between staff and leadership to decrease absences. Data was recorded regarding attendance and performance of the Charge Nurse Huddles each shift by the charge nurse in a predesigned document. Data regarding absences was collected from reports via the time keeping management system. Huddles were conducted from May 1, 2021 through June 28, 2021. Charge Nurses were tasked with leading unit huddles every shift. They were given a huddle template for uniformity of meetings. These meetings lasted no more than 10 minutes at the beginning of the shift. The huddle template included the following sections: New General Hospital Information, Department Specific Information, and Follow up to previous frustrations/concerns. Also included were sections for positive aspects such as praising coworkers, or sharing ideas/methods of patient care that worked well. Huddles were completed at a rate of 86% (51 out of 59) for dayshift and 85% (50/59) for nightshift. Absences recorded for licensed nursing staff were noted to have decreased from April to May, this decrease cannot be statistically linked to the implementation of Charge Nurse Huddles, June-11 unexcused absences, May-11 unexcused absences, April-24 unexcused absences, March-9 unexcused absences. However, it is worth noting that since the implementation of the huddles, staff have increased their overall communication with direct leadership, not only voicing work issues or concerns, but also showing a level of comfort approaching direct leadership to utilize the open-door policy of leadership. It could be theorized that the increased communication by staff is a result of leadership being better able to close the communication loop and address their concerns, questions, or points of conversation that were brought up and transcribed during the shift huddles