Nursing

Analyze your environment to avoid difficult patient behavior

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, August 23, 2007

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Creating an open, honest, and respectful communication environment with families is your first line of defense against difficult behavior. Take a moment to analyze your environment. Think about what kind of relationship your organization has with patients' families. Make sure all staff in your organization are doing all they can to effectively communicate and apply good customer service principles to their interactions with patients' families.
 
There are some common situations and interactions within your organization that can contribute to patients becoming difficult or angry. Keep the following tips in mind to maintain a respectful work environment:

  • Avoid having a patient endure a long wait. Long waits, especially those without an apology or frequent check-ins, frustrate patients and their families, and may give the notion of a disorganized or hurried staff.
  • Treat family concerns with respect. Pay attention to how you speak to the family. Never talk down or speak in a judgmental way. If you often interrupt patients or their families, it may appear as if you are taking their statements lightly.
  • Deliver crucial developments or information to the family. Imagine if a physician scheduled to see the patient is replaced at the last minute by a colleague and this situation is not explained to the patient's family. Then a complication or error occurs during the exam. When the new physician speaks to the family, their first reaction is confusion, then anger. This type of oversight will quickly transform your communication environment from one that is open and honest to one that is characterized by mistrust.


Editor's note: The above excerpt is from the online course "Handling Difficult Patients: A Guide for Healthcare Staff." For more information on this and other courses in our library, go to http://www.hcprofessor.com.



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