• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Patients as partners in shared governance

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, December 26, 2006

As a process structure of partnership between staff nurses and patients, shared governance provides a vehicle for improved communication, greater responsibility and accountability, and a way of coordinating, integrating, and facilitating care at the point of service.

Patients respond positively when staff nurses partner with them in their care decisions. Some staff nurses make walking rounds during shift changes and intermittently throughout their shifts. They stop to speak with their patients each time and ask for their feedback, questions, concerns, and ideas. If the doctor visited the patient earlier, the nurses ask the patient what was said and listen to his or her report instead of telling the patient what the physician wrote in the chart or told the nurse. These staff nurses invite patients to attend the interdisciplinary team meetings when the team members are discussing that patient's care. Engaging patients in conversation is one method of involving them in their own care. When staff nurses interact relationally with patients in partnership, patient and nurse satisfaction scores increase.

Source: Adapted from HCPro's new book, Shared Governance: A Practical Approach to Reshaping Professional Nursing Practice. Click here for more information.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive