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VHA National Center for Patient Safety

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A Creative Approach to Learning

Nursing student Andy Jones and facility Patient Safety Manager Jackie Westerfield, R.N., at the fair.

Nursing student Andy Jones, Northern Kentucky University, and facility Patient Safety Manager Jackie Westerfield, R.N., waited to greet employees at the “Alarm Management Drive” booth.

By Jackie Westerfield, R.N., Cincinnati VAMC patient safety manager
Saturday, March 22, 2014

Traditionally, our facility hosts a Halloween-themed Quality/Safety Fair, costumes and all. This year an additional twist was thrown in: Presenters were asked to incorporate the concept that staff members were the key to a truly successful facility quality and safety program.

We also wanted to have fun with this and come up with an amusing but effective way to engage our staff members.

Alarm management, a new 2014 National Patient Safety Goal, was identified as the focus for this year’s “Patient Safety Station.” The intent was to convey to staff what has been done in alarm management and what needs to be done. The director had issued a memo to clinical staff addressing the new patient safety goal, indicating:

  • Implementation of this goal was a priority for leadership
  • A multidisciplinary workgroup had been identified
  • Alert staff that members of the workgroup would be visiting, observing, and/or collecting data from various floors/units

We saw the fair as an opportunity to continue our efforts to communicate the importance of the alarm project. But creative brain storming was needed to incorporate the event’s Halloween theme into the information we wanted to provide about alarm management. In addition, this had to be accomplished in a small space and small window of time -- knowing we had to catch the attention of employees who would be moving through the fair from booth to booth.

According to the Visual Teaching Alliance, about 65 percent of the population are visual learners. The Alliance also notes that a lot of information is visually absorbed without the learner being aware of it at the time of learning; and, that touches of humor and amusement typically make the learning easier, adding “a spoonful of sugar,” so to speak. This being the case, our alarm management workgroup decided to present the information as a visual journey.

In this case, the journey was depicted as “Alarm Management Drive,” with the first portion of the road paved, representing work already completed. The remainder of the drive was still under construction; i.e., work yet to be completed. Traffic signs, listing tasks to be completed, were posted along it.

Keeping with the construction theme, an employee assisting at this station was dressed in construction attire and carried a stop sign saying, “Clinical Alarm Management Under Construction.” I also donned a hard hat, but chose to dress in combat fatigue gear: My goal being to draw attention to the importance of the relationship between alarm fatigue and alarm management. As part of the costume, my name tag read “Colonel Alarm Fatigue.”

We used multiple peel and stick labels in an attempt to visually display alarm load. These were placed randomly on the fatigue gear, along with multiple strings hanging from the arms. These strings had signs at the end, such as ventilator, we hoped would give it an overall “zombie” illusion.

As staff stopped at the station, a prominently displayed Alarm Management Drive poster presented various pieces of information about the topic, and they were offered a trick-or-treat candy.

Door prizes were also available at our booth. To qualify, staff chose a key from a container of keys and placed the key in a lock. Those that chose the correct key had their names entered into the contest using a “key entry form,” for a prize drawing. And of course, the prizes were “alarmingly good” treats!

Learn more 

Visit the Cincinnati VA Medical Center's website 
Read a TIPS Article that summarizes the 2014 National Patient Safety Goals 


 

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