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Find the time for council meetings

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, September 13, 2005

Scheduling time for nurses to hold shared governance meetings is a challenge, but can be fun, says Gayle Novack, BSN, MAOM, RN, administrative director of patient care services, St. John Hospital & Medical Center, Detroit. Novack leads eight of the facility's 32 nursing units, and she's learned that unit culture significantly influences the ability to successfully engage in shared governance. "It helps a great deal to ask nurses to help identify ways and means to make meetings happen," she says. After trying many different methods, the most successful one at St. John Hospital is a monthly shared governance day, explains Novack. On this day, the managers "staff up" to facilitate coverage for council meetings without incurring overtime. "All councils meet on the same day at different time slots. This allows steering groups and others to gather for decision-making," she adds.  It also makes it easier for smaller work groups to coordinate the work on their projects for the month. Novack adds that the most developed teams also schedule interdisciplinary governance meetings during lunch throughout the month.
 
Flexibility is also a big part of their organization's shared governance. "It is healthiest to allow for 'failures' of governance days, which happens when unit activity has to take priority due to unexpected census/acuity," Novack says. "When that happens, the strongest teams go with the flow, don't [get] discouraged, and agree to regroup and keep moving forward."

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