Is this thing on?

Zoom is amazing.

I get to engage in hospital meetings without leaving my house.

I get to stay in my pajamas.

I don’t have to clear the ice from my windshield.

Zoom is the worst.

There just is not a lot of engagement at the hospital, regional or corporate level.

Take the group meeting I led to today.

Our hospital has Med Surg I, Med Surg II, ICU, IMCU, ED, Women’s (L&D and post partum), OR, Cath Lab, Infusion Services, and Interventional Radiology.

That is 10 departments.

In the past we had a much more robust shared governance council.

There were representatives from 7 of the departments.

Sometimes 8.

There was more multidisciplinary participation as well.

Pharmacy updates and conversation.

Housekeeping updates and conversation.

Engineering updates and conversation.

Public safety updates and conversation.

Electronic health records updates and conversation.

Patient satisfaction updates and conversation.

We helped them, they helped us.

Those are also fading a lot.

Today we only had two.

An EHR representative for a brief 6 minute presentation.

And the patient satisfaction updates.

Shared governance is about leading from the bottom of the hierarchy.

If not leading, then it is about being heard from the bottom of the hierarchy.

What else do we talk about?

Safety of patients and staff and data from those efforts.

And quality of patient care and work life and data from those efforts.

I believe in the value of shared governance.

Very much so.

So much that I am leading these meetings and participating in these conversations inside of my salary.

No longer do I get paid hourly for the hours that I put in.

Today there were 4 people in the meeting.

OR, Women’s, and ED.

Our Magnet coordinator was also in the meeting.

These are the the same 4 people who have been the most consistent for the last six months.

Really great information was shared today in our efforts to elevate staff.

And some things to focus our efforts on.

Both will be discussed at unit meetings.

At least in the ED, OR, and Women’s.

And anyone else I can get to listen to us.

I can’t make nurses care about what the council does.

I can, and do, point out the good that has come out of the councils.

Things like improved lighting in the employee parking lot.

Better signage inside and outside the hospital to indicate to patients where they need to go.

Increased clinical ladder participation.

It is frustrating.

And demoralizing.

But at least the four of us care.

Healthcare is hard right now.

So very, very, very hard.

Nurses are leaving for more money.

Leaving the rest of us to shoulder the load.

And I would rather keep engaging in the conversation.

Than let it die.

And this is the part of zoom that I hate.

The silence.

Are the shared governance faithful screaming into the void?