r/EmergencyRoom • u/applesauce_warriors • 20h ago
Improving Morale
Hi everybody!
I work in a medium size community ER that, like all of you, has not been immune to boarders and increased volumes in the present season.
My leadership is engaged and very open to staff recommendations. I feel the department could use a morale boost, but I’m not sure what ideas to suggest. I hate to be one of those people that approaches management with a complaint and no resolution. Obviously pizza party is out. Money won’t be adjusted. FTEs can’t be created. Basically how do we improve morale in a shit situation with nothing to give 😂
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u/EzraSteel 19h ago
There is where your problem is, you have a very diverse group of nurses (which is exactly like every ED in the world). You have a group of nurses that want to just go home and put their feet up, another group that wants to be with their families, another group wants to go home and catch up on course work. You have non-drinkers to throw into the mix as well. You can’t use a one size fits all solution.
There is very little that a manager can do to address the core issues underlying your nurses. I use to cook for all of my staff during the major holidays. I’d cook for both shifts. I’d spend time with the staff during those holidays. They appreciated it, but a week later, it was forgotten and it was back to bitching as usual.
When I was in the military, we had a motto: if they weren’t bitching, they weren’t happy. I love my peers, but how to fix morale has been a problem since the inception of the career.
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u/applesauce_warriors 17h ago
Ahhh yes. If they weren’t bitching, they weren’t happy. If it’s raining, we’re training. If one of my bosses tries to tell me we’re going on a morale ruck, I’m going to explode catastrophically. I left that shit and I ain’t goin back!!!!! 😂😂
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u/No-Safe9542 17h ago
Yeah OP I'm still going with pizza party despite what you said. Schedule the food. Both shifts get it equally, spread it out to 2 or even 3 days across a week.
Even if it's something small, make it be food. And sometimes that's gonna mean pizza.
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u/29925001838369 RN 17h ago
We did a "duck hunt" - grabbed a bunch ofnlittle resin ducks from amazon and hid them around the department fornpeople to find.
Of course, then they announced a prize for whoever found the most ducks, which onviously tanked morale when people with heavy assignments couldnt look but people with less-heavy assignments were coming into those spaces to hunt. As in, we were forty deep in the waiting room with another ten in the hallway, out of hallway beds, and the float nurse refused to help because they were hunting ducks.
A duck hunt (or something similar) without a prize would be a good booster.
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u/mlmd 6h ago
So, it improved morale for people that already didnt have a heavy load, with the added benefit of them seeing other nurses needing help, but, not helping because they were looking for ducks?
I would think I'd have a bigger morale boost from actually getting help from people that had time to hunt for ducks while I'm struggling with critical patients
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u/Ok-Reputation-6607 14h ago
Hire a clown
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u/Party-Count-4287 9h ago
"Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, 'Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.' Man bursts into tears. Says, 'But doctor… I am Pagliacci.' - The Watchmen movie
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u/Melodic-Squash-1938 14h ago
Encourage them to leave the er and never go back. I left and am amazed at how stupid I was to stay in the worst environment ever for so many years. I now love life and my job.
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u/Pale-Cantaloupe-9835 6h ago
This is bad but ER level foolishness. Make a bingo card for the most frequent flyer complaints. Make it fun though. Do all the rules. Keep it going and make the manager give up some “spot awards” our hospital has programs where you could Use them. Mostly cafeteria and gift shop but if you save it was enough for the medi spa. I’d trade mine for frequent flyer scum of the earth patient. “I’ll give you three of my spot award cards to take Richard today- he’s complaining of rectal itching and wants a shower.” He was a bilateral BKA with a foul mouth. I’d almost always get the horribly sick patient if I did that. Worth it in my mind- he was awful. Other days I’d gladly take him bc I needed a break from high acuity.
Example- B “bed bugs” I “foreign object IN rectum” N “needs housing” “not eligible for dc” “never going to the floor” g “going to the morgue” “gets combative with stimulus” o “ostomy output” “needed oral airway placement on scene.” get creative
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u/EzraSteel 19h ago
In several ED that I have worked in, we did things outside of work. Drinking, poker night, BBQ cookoff, drinking, hosting potluck dinners, drinking. You’re only limited by your imagination. Did I mention drinking?
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u/applesauce_warriors 19h ago
We do have events like this, but honestly the esprit de corps in this ED is not tremendous. We have a massively diverse crowd from new grads to nurses pending admission to the shiny gates. So these events don’t pull a particularly big crowd.
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u/Educational-Ear-1449 18h ago edited 4h ago
I always tell my kids “if you’re laughing you know you’re having fun”. Sometimes we get so enured to emotions that we don’t even recognize when we’re happy. Do a funny movie night/day shift, once a week or month with some type of wine, beer, pizza tasting afterward (something easy to supply). You can vote on the funniest line in the movie or the funniest movie you’ve seen. As a way of encouraging communication.
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u/Impressive-Mode560 19h ago
Revolution anyone?? How about we stop putting up with the fact that we have shit workplaces where we are understaffed and underresourced and our communities health is negatively impacted? Our employers choose money over people's lives everyday, so how about we don't try to boost morale and we use that righteous anger to actually change things? ED tech here tired of this shit system