Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
able to tell their stories. Healthcare professionals need spaces
where they can feel increasingly free from the aspect of intimidation
and hierarchy constrictive communication relationships. In
developing a safe space for the sharing of each other’s stories,
healthcare professionals could use the sharing of stories and the
creation of communication scenarios to actually help nurses and
physicians to affect change in real time.
This could be done in a simulation lab with the nursephysician-technologist-nonclinical
personnel teams. With the
presence of a CMM facilitator, the teams can role play, and as this
happens the sessions can be taped. Together the members can
watch the tapes and then discuss what could have been done
differently from the aspects of communication and how each
member feels when they are a part of the situation. They can then
place these ideas into imagines such as the heuristics of CMM to
develop a snapshot of what is transpiring as communicators. Just
imagine what it would be like to be able to stop someone at the
very point when they have said something that is less than positive
or thoughtful and to then redirect the conversation to a space of
positive intent. This is done by exploring the current patterns and
having discussions as to what works and what does not and then to
develop integrative and co-created scenarios that exemplify
collaboration as an effort to be a team of positive communicators.
The first simulation is scheduled for the cardiac team at one of
the acute care sites. After consulting the cardiac team, the plan is to
reenact the placement of a balloon pump. The team decided that
this is an important scenario to explore because this is usually a
hectic situation and urgent patient care scenario where the
individuals on the team have developed uncomfortable
communication patterns. And, the team wants to try to change
these patterns to develop what they think are considered more of
an effective communication environment. The team will be taped
and then debriefed on their communication. The team will go back
into the simulation lab to practice more effective communication
patterns. We are developing this situation as a template for
simulation and team communication that can be replicated
throughout healthcare delivery operations to be specific to particular
scenarios as needed and or wanted.
Dissolving the Boundaries
By sharing stories, exploring team communications and
learning to have an appreciation of individual expertise and
knowledge, healthcare professionals can begin to dissolve the
ineffective boundaries that exist within the context of the medical
hierarchy and communication. These are the ineffective boundaries
which are not conducive to the creation of collaborative healthcare
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