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Monday, November 2, 2009: 2:40 PM
Learning Objective 1: state three reasons why nurses are avoiding the conversations necessary to create a healthy work environment
Learning Objective 2: describe the DESC communication model and give an example of the model from their own practice.
Experts in the field of Organizational Development advocate that a “new language” is necessary to move a culture from the traditional hierarchical mode to autonomy and empowerment. Yet it is well known that the major communication style of nurses is passive aggressive and that conflict avoidance keeps nurses in a powerless position thereby reinforcing low self esteem. Over two thousand nurses identified a crucial conversation they were presently avoiding that they acknowledged that they should engage in with their peers in order to create a healthy work environment. The nurses then rated how difficult it would be to actually have this conversation on a 1-10 scale. Surprisingly, over eighty percent of every group rated the difficulty between 8 -10. As nurses began listing the reasons they were avoiding this conversation, they acknowledged that they were self-silencing because of fear. In light of oppression theory nurses could then see “the veil” – the very forces that keep any group oppressed. This realization alone acted as a powerful force in decreasing apprehension.
This presentation will summarize the researach findings and help nursing leaders understand the underlying reasons why staff are avoidant so that they can increase nurses' self esteem and autonomy, role model healthy communication and lead change by creating a new standard. The DESC communication model will be presented and demonstrated as a solid framework for creating the healthy work environment that will nursture and retain tomorrow's nurse leaders.