This week’s quote is:
"I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money."
—Arthur Godfrey
Ideas From the Front
Barbara Meadows, MSN, RN, a Home Care Quality Improvement Specialist for QSource in Nashville, Tennessee, recently sent me some great quotes. I asked her if she had seen any ideas work particularly well to recognize employees in the home healthcare field and this is her reply:
“I'm working with home care agencies across Tennessee to improve their staff recruitment and retention programs. We've got a creative bunch of folks working in home care agencies across Tennessee! Big hearts and little budgets! Here's a few of the things they're doing to recognize their employees:
~One agency has a large, bare-branched tree painted on one of their walls. Every time someone does something exceptional or receives a letter of thanks from a patient or family, that staff member's name and the date are put onto a golden leaf, and that leaf is permanently attached to the tree. Staff members are pleased when they see a leaves go up with their names on them and the entire agency is enjoying watching the tree "bloom."
~Home care workers spend a lot of their time each day in their cars, so every summer when the heat in Tennessee is formidable, an agency fills a large tub with, stocks it with bottled water and leaves it in the staff workroom. They replace the labels on the bottles with ones of their own that say, "Stay hydrated! We care about YOU!"
~Another agency has teams of staff working on different performance outcomes. They have a large racetrack on the wall and each team has a little car on that racetrack that is moved according to the results of monthly outcome numbers. This has fostered a little friendly competition among staff to see how their car is doing each month when new numbers are released.
~An agency is focusing on OASIS education with their staff (this is a CMS-required data set with individual data points that all begin with M0###--hence the name "Moo" data points. All manner of cow jokes have derived from this. This particular agency calls staff together each morning for a very short "Moo-Item of the Day" inservice by playing a cow's "mooo" over the intercom. The agency director says this has led to an increasing collection of cows provided by her staff, including one she received last Christmas that moos, "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" (personally, I think THAT ONE would be a good one to play over the intercom!).
~Another agency invited their field staff to come by for lunch between 11AM and 2 PM. Managers had grills set up in the parking lot and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers for the field staff while other managers and members of the office staff washed their cars.
~Another agency has an "Angels Among Us" table in their office. When one staff member is nominated by another or by a patient for doing something exceptional, this table is set up as a tribute to that staff member, including a copy of the nomination, an explanation of why the person is being so honored, photos of the staff member, and flowers or other table decoration.
~Most agencies have their "Brag Boards" where they post thank you letters from patients.
There are so many stories...these are just a few I can think of right now. Home Health agencies do so much with so little. There is such high turnover in the homecare industry and so many of our agencies feel powerless to do anything about it. I appreciate your books and newsletter so much because they give concrete, low-cost actions that any manager can take to make things better. Thanks!”
The Red Plate 2
Polly Lott, Director of Strategic Projects, Office of the President, at the Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado writes:
“I read your suggestions about The Red Plate with interest, because enjoying dinner on the Red Plate has been a valued tradition in our home for many years -- and we used it in many other ways besides the typical birthdays and special occasions that you mentioned.
One of the most effective uses for the Red Plate in our family was that anytime someone ate at our home for the first time, he/she was our honored guest -- and was served on the Red Plate. This applied for guests of all ages, and particularly to the childhood friends who came home with our son and daughter. In addition to dining on this special plate, our custom was that we could then ask our dinner guest any questions we'd like to ask them--an interview format to help us all learn about them! We took turns around the table from youngest to oldest asking various questions, and through this tradition my husband and I found two benefits: (1) our children learned so much about how to honor others through asking good questions and then listening; and (2) our young guests absolutely reveled in being the center of attention for a whole dinner hour! As our kids grew older, they would say, "Can I bring Suzi to dinner one night this week? She heard about the Red Plate dinners at our house and really wants to be the special guest for one." What a compliment!
Through questions like, "what was your favorite family vacation," we learned a lot about the family lives of our children's friends. By asking "what do you want to be when you grow up," we affirmed and encouraged their dreams. And by asking "who's your hero," we learned much about their values and how their friendship with our child might be a benefit or a concern for us. The next time that child came to visit, he or she wasn't just another little face in the neighborhood; but rather someone we really had come to know.
When our kids reached dating age, we didn't have to ask them to please bring their prospective date over for us to meet -- they did it for us by planning Red Plate dinners themselves! The Red Plate even went with us to a restaurant one Sunday when a dinner at our home couldn't be arranged before the fast-approaching big date. And I well remember the time when all three kids -- our two children and our exchange student from Sweden -- all had dates for a special school dance, and they told us enthusiastically, "our friends want to come to a Red Plate dinner but we know there isn't time for three dinners before the dance on Saturday -- so could we have them all on one night and use red paper plates?" Eventually those Red Plate dinners were held for the young man and the young woman whom our children would choose to marry -- and the tradition now goes on to include our little grandson, since his mom and dad have their own Red Plate.
Just thought you might be interested to know that there are many creative and family-changing ways to use this American traditional plate!”
Thanks Polly, and Barbara and Arthur!
Note: The Red Plate is available from Hallmark stores nationwide…
Bob Nelson