Prevention Outlook/Team Outlook, Moving towards collaborACTION
The care team’s report, wrapping up its shift, points to another very busy day of work for their relief on the next shift. The various tasks to perform are similar to the obstacles to overcome during mountain climbing. .Turnover on the unit beyond its capacity, a considerable number of admissions, numerous assessments to do, several therapeutic nursing plans (TNP) to create, unstable patients waiting for a transfer to intensive care, other patients suffering from respiratory distress requiring constant monitoring and needing to have tests: all of this seems insurmountable.
Equally important, several major dressings to change and requiring the mobilization of more than one healthcare professional, meetings with the patients’ families as well as a multitude of other tasks are on the agenda. Add to this already overloaded programme the pressure applied by the surgeons to speed up the pace, because of the emergency cases that could cancel the procedures scheduled in the operating room, without forgetting the inevitable unforeseen.
Like climbing Mount Everest with the Sherpas, teamwork is essential to attain the objectives of the care setting. It is vital that the workload, the tasks and the responsibilities are shared equitably among the members of the team, in a helpful and collaborative spirit, for its own well-being and that of others. Thus, working in a collaborative style and in an efficient way requires goodwill, solicitude, support, trust, demonstrations of appreciation and respectful communication from everyone. In fact, collaboration implies recognition of self and others as people rather than resources essentially focused on the carrying out of tasks.
Wanting to make the healthcare professionals aware of the healthy effects of working as a team, an occupational health and safety protective factor, the FIQ chose as the OHS Week 2014 theme: Prevention outlook/Team outlook, Moving towards collaborACTION. The coinage, collaborACTION is used to stress the importance of collaboration in action. In other words, the action of collaborating with their teammates and establishing with them harmonious relations helps to overcome the obstacles, reduce the stress and prevent injuries, both on the physical and psychological level. What’s more, collaborACTION contributes to improving the climate at work and to develop a culture of prevention in her workplace.
Like the mountain climbers scaling the highest Himalayan peaks with the help of the Sherpas, the healthcare professionals can also count on the support of an entire occupational health and safety team at the FIQ, which incorporates their local union team. The latter can, with the help of the union consultants at the FIQ, inform them, advise them and accompany them in their OHS files, both in prevention and in compensation of employment injuries.
Lastly, promoting prevention in OHS in the care settings and equipping its members to recognize their employment injuries when prevention is not enough are part of the priorities for the FIQ. It is in this double perspective that its OHS Committee has designed the Moving towards collaborACTION – Your OHS file in 10 steps publication, which is available with every local union team of the FIQ.
To arrive at the summit of the mountain with a feeling of well-being and satisfaction, move towards collaborACTION at work, it’s good for the health!
Do you know ?
5. When you suffer a work accident, it is very important to inform your employer promptly and your local union team and to quickly consult a physician. Your local union team can advise you and accompany you in the evolution of your OHS file. You are not alone, as there is an entire team at the FIQ to advise you on OHS matters.
We cannot talk about real collaboration at work without making a reference to the basic value of parity, enshrined in an Act respecting occupational health and safety (OHS Act). This landmark legislation on prevention provides for the active participation of every employee, their union representatives and their employer in the elimination at the source of hazards for the health, safety and well-being of the personnel.
Conducive to effective transmission of information to patients and their families, the practice of collaboration by the care team increases the patients’ confidence in the staff, which also increases their willingness to collaborate with it and reduces the need to make demands of them.
There are many advantages to working in collaboration, both for the patients and the staff on the care team. According to several authors, collaboration between healthcare professionals makes it possible to change negative attitudes and perceptions, to rectify problems of trust and communication, to reduce stress and to promote satisfaction at work, among others.
The objective of the Moving towards collaborACTION – Your OHS file in 10 steps publication designed by the FIQ, is to simply the understanding of the course of an OHS file and to make sure that the appropriate actions are taken in due time. Each step includes what the member who suffers an employment injury must know or do as well as some helpful advice. An illustration then summarizes all of these steps. This publication is available with the local union team in each institution.