Humor enhances staff education, patient care
Humor enhances staff education, patient care
Jokes, skits, stories reduce stress & improve learning
We've all heard that laughter is the best medicine, but home health managers have also found that humor can help staff members provide better care and learn more effectively as well.
"Humor is a wonderful coping mechanism and stress reliever," points out Rosa Cunha, BSN, RN, performance improvement manager for Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, NJ. "Home health patients who are tense are disarmed by a nurse who sets a pleasant tone with light-hearted humor," she says.
Humor doesn't necessarily mean jokes, points out Cunha. "Comedians don't tell jokes as much as they talk about everyday situations that can be funny," she says. Remember that patients are often scared or worried about their condition or being home bound, so focus on light stories that are not health related and tell stories about yourself, she suggests. Starting a story with "I did the silliest thing" or "I saw a funny show on television," relaxes patients and gets them thinking about something other than their situation, she adds.
There are some caveats to using jokes or humor, warns Cunha. "Jokes may have ethnic, religious or other cultural overtones that a patient might find offensive, so be very careful which ones you use," she says. While everyone has some sense of humor, get to know the patient before you use sarcasm because not all people appreciate sarcastic humor, she suggests. "Also, the humorous statements we make in the office to co-workers may be too dark or seem harsh to patients so be aware of what type of humor is appropriate," she explains.
Humor in the office is wonderful, says Cunha. "Inservices and employee communications can be much more interesting if we remember to incorporate humor," she says. For example, in a presentation about clear writing in documentation, Cunha took samples of mistakes made in e-mails to show how written messages that are not carefully proofread can communicate a different meaning. An e-mail explaining the delay in cleaning the hospital parking lot was sent to managers with the note that the author was "sorry for the incontinence." Cunha could not resist sharing the e-mail with the comment that she "now understood the reason the parking lot had to be cleaned."
Humor improves education
Not only do employees pay closer attention in classes that incorporate humor, but studies have shown that they retain the information presented in these classes, says Cunha. "You can always find a way to use humor to break the monotony of an inservice with funny stories, cartoons in your presentation, or games that get the audience involved," she says.
Simon Says is a terrific game to get people laughing, says Cunha. "People start out so seriously because they don't want to make a mistake, but soon everyone realizes how ridiculous the game is," she says. "It is also one way the instructor can feel very powerful. There are few times that any of us can make an entire room of people do exactly what we say!" she laughs.
Even though there were no staff members trying to rub their stomachs and pat their heads at the same time, managers of Cascade Home Health and Hospice in Eugene, OR, were able to make staff members laugh during an OASIS inservice. "We used a skit to demonstrate a nursing visit," she says. "We had just started using point-of-service laptops so we exaggerated everything from leaving the computer open for the patient to play with while the nurse went to another room to hitting the wrong keys," she explains.
"We were focusing on the OASIS questions regarding medications so our nurses found loose pills in shoeboxes and socks; worked with obviously mislabeled pill bottles; and, in one situation, popped a bottle of pain pills open to have them spill into the nurse's lap," says Judy Howe, RN, manager of the agency. "One pill fell to the floor but she recovered it quickly and announced to the patient that the five-second rule applied so the pill was fine to take," she adds.
Inappropriate attire only increased the laughter as a therapist attempted to transfer a patient with a recent amputation from a wheelchair to the bed, says Howe. "We had staff members rolling in the aisles," she admits.
This particular inservice, which was repeated twice to enable all staff to attend and later videotaped was talked about for a long time, says Howe. "All of the actors were members of the management staff and I do believe the clinical staff appreciated the fact that we were willing to act foolish," she says. "It also helped that all members of our management staff are not at all shy and quite willing to perform in a funny skit," she adds.
If you have the right topic, the right performers, and the right situation, a humorous skit or presentation is a great way to educate staff members, says Howe. She adds, "Everyone gets tired of the same old inservices and if you can surprise staff members with an unexpected approach, they pay close attention, remember the material, and don't dread the next inservice."
Sources
For more information about the use of humor in home health, contact:
- Rosa Cunha, BSN, RN, Performance Improvement Manager, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 350 Engle St., Englewood, NJ 07631. Phone: (201) 894-3000. E-mail: [email protected].
- Judy Howe, RN, Manager, Cascade Home Care and Hospice, 2650 Suzanne Way, Suite 200, Eugene, OR 97408. Phone: (541) 228-3086. E-mail: [email protected].
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