Ideas That Work: Staff Satisfaction

Staff members who aren’t given time to take breaks during busy shifts can quickly become dissatisfied. Ensuring each staff member as an opportunity to step away from surgery for a few minutes can be difficult due to ineffective ways for assigning and tracking break times. That’s why I worked with one of our hospital’s IT reps to adapt an app that tracks breaks for anesthesia providers to the needs of the surgery department. Surgical team members downloaded the app to their phones or computers. When they go on break, they check the appropriate box in the app, which records the time and the OR in which the break was taken. Our board runners monitor the app throughout the day and reallocate staffing resources based on breaks remaining to be taken. We monitor weekly trends and talk directly with staff members who don’t take assigned breaks to ensure they have a chance to reset and recharge.

Matt Lucas, BSN, RN, CNOR
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
Nashville, Tenn.
[email protected]