Keeping Nurses in the Know

By Meredith Foxx, MSN, MBA, APRN, NEA-BC, Executive Chief Nursing Officer

Having a communication strategy that ensures important messages reach nursing caregivers is a must for nursing organizations. Effective communication drives higher retention, engagement, satisfaction and productivity. It can also encourage behavioral change in support of an organization’s business goals, boost recruitment through employee advocacy and more.

But determining what communication channels work best can be challenging. A 2018 time-motion study conducted by members of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) found that nurses spend most of their time communicating in patient rooms and charting and reviewing information in the electronic health record (EHR). Add to that the pandemic and nurses’ increased workloads. To reach busy nurses, communication strategies need to be catered to the nurse and their work environment.

Cleveland Clinic executive nurses recently partnered with our organization’s Caregiver Communications and Market Research and Insights teams to determine the most effective communication methods for nurses. Throughout the pandemic, the number of communications we provided nurses increased significantly, as did the speed at which we communicated. This prompted us to consider our communication strategy and the best ways to reach our nurses. Through research and a communication assessment, including surveying nursing staff, we looked at how nurses use communication channels, their preferences for receiving communication, including frequency and content.

Based on our findings, the following are some of the most effective ways for communicating with nursing employees.

Manager-driven communication

Our survey results confirmed what we all assumed to be true: Nurses want to know what is going on in their organizations, but time is their biggest barrier to obtaining information. Because of this, one of the most effective ways to ensure that information reaches nurses is through managers. Managers should use multiple communication methods to provide information, such as a combination of daily huddles, 1:1 touch bases, emails and printed updates that can be shared verbally or posted in caregiver spaces.

To make sure managers have the latest news to give their teams, we email all nurse managers/leaders a bi-weekly resource (known as Nursing News to Know) that contains talking points intended to guide discussions with their teams. The email tool also includes a dedicated area for local news so managers can add customized facility or unit information.

Intranet communication

A hospital or health system intranet is another highly effective communication tool. Our nurses ranked Cleveland Clinic’s intranet home page as the second most effective way to get information. Posting important news on an intranet site is most successful when content is relevant and timely, affects most or all employees (including nurses) and aligns with the organization’s priorities.

As critical partners of the care team, we recognize the importance of nursing visibility in our communications. We highlight nursing news and contributions that fulfill our mission and care priorities. For example, 2021 priorities were:

• Caregiver experience.
• Safety, quality and patient experience.
• Diversity and inclusion.
• Caregiver well-being.
• Caregiver growth and development.
• Recruitment and retention.

Content published on the intranet may include nursing feature articles, individual or team spotlights, photo galleries, videos, polls, leader messages, infographics and other visual storytelling, as well as patient stories.

Executive email communication

Executive leader emails also topped our nurses’ communication preferences list. Sixty-eight percent of nurses said receiving an email from executives at their location works for them. Reputable, respected executives have the attention of employees, so leveraging these voices to send messages to nurses is a good move for nursing organizations.

As ECNO, I want to be someone our nursing family trusts, looks up to and can rely on. I aim to inspire and guide nursing caregivers throughout their careers. One way I connect with nurses is by sharing personal messages on strategic priorities and other significant initiatives. Associate chief nursing officers and chief nursing officers also lead with passion and influence. They, too, value transparent, frequent communication with their nursing teams, holding quarterly town halls and sharing updates for their specialty area or location.

From Cleveland Clinic’s communications team, nurse leaders also receive a weekly email, known as Leaders’ Agenda. It contains news specific to their roles. And all caregivers receive the health system’s Caregiver Catch Up newsletter twice a week. For vital announcements or urgent messages that affect patient care, Caregiver Communications creates direct emails to affected nurses. Frequency and repetition go a long way to ensure messages are received and digested. More than half of our nurses read organizational messages like these at least once a day, and 35% read them several times a week.

Other considerations

Bedside nurses are paid by the hour and don’t have access to email or the intranet outside of work. For these and other reasons, reaching nurses off shift is a challenge. While it’s not often necessary to contact nurses after working hours, crisis situations like the pandemic revealed that sometimes it’s needed.

One way to address this is giving caregivers the ability to opt in to receive text messages on their personal devices. Cleveland Clinic does this and is exploring other technologies for reaching nurses off-shift.

A pointer for health systems with multiple facilities: Communications should be shared consistently across locations to enhance good relationships and collaboration.

If a nurse communication revamp is on your organization’s horizon, think carefully about how to select the most appropriate communication channels for your nursing audience. And remember that no communication plan should remain static – especially if audience needs change. Use communication to influence caregiver behaviors to support your organization’s mission, vision and values. At the end of the day, it’s about understanding how to best support your nurses.