Little Things Make a Big Difference
On the 20th March, NHS Education Scotland, NHS quality improvement Scotland and the public service ombudsman delivered a conference called “Little Things Make a Big Difference”.
This conference launched the patients’ experience campaign which will be running across NHS Scotland, in response to the Better Health, Better Care strategy document.
One of the workshops we ran took as a starting point our most recent postcard. Here are the responses from the 15 people who participated.
What Stops you from Asking Questions?
- Sometimes I don’t know what the question is
- I worry that I may not be able to do anything with the answer I get
- Sometimes I make assumptions about what’s going on and why so that I don’t recognise that a question is needed
- If you ask too many questions you may be seen as a trouble-maker
- If you ask someone a question they might see it as a challenge
- I fear opening a can of worms
- There is often a culture which dissuades you from asking questions and then over time you don’t notice that a question is needed
- As a mental health nurse I am encouraged to be nosey; we ask lots of questions
- The way we work sometimes shuts us off from patients and if the team doesn’t value “caring” as a priority then it becomes routine to not ask questions
- It is interesting that we talk about asking questions as challenging; it is just about being curious
Discussion points:
- As nurses are we becoming disconnected from the people we care for?
- As a nurse am I losing the connection between what I need to do to care for myself and what my patient needs me to do for them?
- How do we empower people to ask questions?
- This is not rocket science. How do we encourage people to use their common sense?
What are the questions you stop yourself from asking?
- Why are we doing it this way?
- Why don’t we try something different?
- Are we working effectively?
- What do we do well?
