Open Communication

It is the first time since I started work as a nurse I got a call from my manager about a patient’s parents complains. I was surprised at the first: I always do my best and care of my patients the most. While I am working, I am using my heart to take care of the precious babies.

The good part is that my manager knows how to communicate. She gave me the positive feedback from the parents first and then brought out their concern: wish me to be more open with communication about their babies care.

They were right. Yesterday, while I was taking care of their baby, I was quiet. Yet, I have my reason that I am a quiet person in nature and I was presumed that all the primary nurses of their babies already talked to them about what is going on with their babies, but still, there is no excuse.

I remembered when I first started the shift, parents were there and sitting by the bedside. I said “hello” and keep doing my checks for the start of the shift. I could do better is while I was doing all my checks, I could explain to them what I was doing and why I was doing so. That way they would feel more comfortable with me. During the shift, parents came again and we had simple communication, again, I was working on changing IV tubing and the new bags of TPN and lipid. I was quiet again and keep doing what I was doing without explain to the parents. I think it would be appreciated if I talked with them while I was working. Presume they knew what I was doing is not correct. Talk a little more then they wanted would not to do any harm. We can always ask them “Have anyone talked to you about this…?”

And as not a primary nurse of the babies, I tended to be more quiet since there were primary nurses assigned. I always try to explain everything to my primary baby’s family. That is another bias I have. Like I said, “Do not presume the family knew anything, and just explain everything to them. At least we can ask what do they want to know and what is their concern…”

I really want to apologize to the parents about my lack of communication of yesterday. I feel really bad that I hurt their feelings. I think I will do that on Monday.

Sorry for bringing the trouble to my manager. And thank her very much for the feedback.

That is the way we can improve our care for our patients.