The Constant and Familiar Face

“Ask nurses for their opinion,” advises Blue. “Treat them like an equal, which is another one of the beauties of this program, because hospitalists certainly do that. When it comes down to it, people want to be appreciated, respected, and acknowledged for their contribution.”

Blue and her team also encourage hospitalists to share with the nurses if they happen to hear news of their patients’ progress. “If we have follow-up on somebody from the primary care provider after that patient has left the hospital, for example, we try to share that with the nursing staff because they’re our patients. They’re not just my patients and they’re not your patients; they’re our patients.”

Conclusion

The quality of the nurse-hospitalist relationship is central to patient care. The methods, means, and styles of individual and team communication all influence the effectiveness of a hospital team. Retraining providers to traverse the gap of different communication styles is a way to approach the issues that exist. Mutual training for physicians and nurses, as well as training nurses to communicate in ways that more approximate how physicians communicate, will better serve patient and provider needs.

Hospitalists can encourage nurses to overcome hesitancies to initiate calls, clarify their preferences for how nurses should contact them, and work with nurses to seek workable ways to perform patient rounds in concert. Most of all, nurses need timely care plan distribution and acknowledgment for their contributions to teamwork and patient care. TH

Writer Andrea Sattinger will write about occupational therapists’ experiences with hospitalists in the January issue.

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