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Two Free PowerPoint Templates to Liven Your Next Presentation

by Nursetopia on May 20, 2013

I’ve had my fair share of stale PowerPoint presentations. Trust me, I’ve given many of them, too. I find the presentations I enjoy the most have clean aesthetics, minimal text, and provide opportunities for storytelling. Considering I like those things in presentations, I choose to present this way, as well.

Notepad and TapeI had the lovely opportunity to speak on behalf of the Nurse Oncology Education Program to a group of nurses and nurse faculty at the beautiful Moncrief Cancer Institute in Fort Worth on Saturday. One presentation was directed for faculty on how to make oncology content “stick” in undergraduate curricula, something I’ve grown passionate about as a result of working with faculty over several years. The second presentation was about colorectal cancer screening.

ScreenBoth topics can be rather dull, so I try to make the content come alive in any way possible – mostly with stories, vocal tone, and creative PowerPoint backgrounds. In preparation for the presentation, I couldn’t find any background I really liked, so I just made my own with simple shapes, lines, transparency settings, and colors. One of the nursing faculty members asked for the templates, so I thought I’d share, share, share in true Nursetopia fashion.

You can download the “Notepad & Tape” PowerPoint template here and the “Screen” PowerPoint template here. (Any large, unused space likely included a picture.) Enjoy!

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How A Telecommuting Mom Saved Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 2′

by Nursetopia on May 17, 2013

Thinking of Lean In and working moms, I remembered a video my three-year old son “found” on YouTube (true story) about how motherhood saved the Toy Story 2 movie. (It’s one of “our” favorites.) It’s just a neat story. And it’s animated. Animation always makes things better.

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Congrats, Tavenner!

by Nursetopia on May 16, 2013

Congratulations, I think, to Marilyn Tavenner, a former nurse and hospital executive, on her U.S. Senate confirmation May 15, 2013, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She has served as the acting administrator of CMS since late 2010, and she is the first permanent leader of CMS since 2006.

I’m not sure her work changes at all – except for maybe having to stop justifying that she can do the job and just get on with it. There is, indeed, much work. Best wishes to Tavenner and her team as they implement the Affordable Care Act and attempt to reinvent CMS services.

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Eight of the ‘Top 25 Women in Healthcare’ are Nurses

by Nursetopia on May 14, 2013

Modern Healthcare recently named the Top 25 Women in Healthcare for 2013, which honors female healthcare executives for their ongoing work.

I was pleased to see that eight of the 25 women honored are nurses:

Who wasn’t on the list that you think should have been included?

 

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From ‘Angel of Death’ Nurse to Building A Culture of Trust: A Nursetopia Reading & Education Mashup [Part 9]

by Nursetopia on May 3, 2013

Here’s a snippet of what I’ve been reading (and even watching) lately.

What about you? What are you reading this week?

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Breaking Down Real Walls while Celebrating Fake Ones

by Nursetopia on May 1, 2013

National Cubicle Day was April 28, 2013. That fell on the weekend, so I decided to celebrate the national day among my team, which “offices” in cubes – modular workstations, rather – today. Below is the invite I created, and all of our food was cubed, rectangle, or boxed-themed in some way. It was great fun making fun of working in a cube and all the “special joy” it brings. It brought us closer together for a small moment during our busy workday, which is always a good thing.

If you and your coworkers live worklife in the box, feel free to download and use the invite, overlaying a textbox with your party date and location in the white space.

 

CubicleCelebration

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The 7 Habits of Happy Kids [Book Review]

by Nursetopia on April 9, 2013

The 7 Habits of Happy KidsThe 7 Habits of Happy Kids, written by Sean Covey, is an excellent children’s book. It follows the same seven habits presented by Stephen Covey in his 1989 published The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I read the original book in graduate school, but I had no idea the kids’ book existed until my children’s elementary school started working through the Leader in Me school-transformation model, in which every aspect of the school – from kindergarten to fifth grade, the library to the nurse’s office – follow and are guided by the seven habits.

I really love that my kiddos are learning these vital skills early. Seriously, this stuff is MBA reading illustrated  into cuddly animals and practical stories any child (or adult) can relate to. In my kids’ school, each classroom has one copy of the book, and it’s an honor to get to take the book home over the weekend. My six-year-old daughter received the privilege this weekend, and we read through the entire book – all seven habits and corresponding stories and “practice point” questions and tips – in about 45 minutes.

It was lovely. My daughter clearly grasped the meaning of each of the seven habits; she has no problem applying them to everyday situations, which is awesome. And, I even put down the book once we finished it, thinking about the seven habits in my own life.

Are there any other parents working through this book and school model with their children? Or, are there any school nurses actually applying the seven habits into nursing practice? What do you think about the book and the concepts?

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A Little Bit of Frustration Goes A Long Way

by Nursetopia on April 5, 2013

FrustrationA little bit of frustration – with the system, the “man,” or whatever – goes a long way. A little bit of frustration is healthy, in my opinion. It keeps us passionate. It keeps us advocating. It keeps us moving forward because we know whatever “it” is shouldn’t be this frustrating.

A lot of frustration, on the other hand, is no good. It’s just overwhelming. It leads to burnout.

Everything in moderation, folks…including frustration. If you have too much at the moment, push back from the table to limit your intake and let things settle and remember that a little goes a long way to effect change.

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Do Patients “Like” Good Care?: Measuring Hospital Quality Via Facebook

by Nursetopia on March 8, 2013

The Article: Timian, A., Rupcic, S., Kachnowski, S., & Luisi, P. (2013). Do patients “like” good care?: Measuring hospital quality via Facebook. American Journal of Medical Quality. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1062860612474839

Big Idea: This first-of-its-kind exploratory study uses multivariate regressions, adjusting for numerous factors, to research the correlations between a cluster sample of 82 New York hospitals’ Facebook page “Likes,” patient satisfaction, patient recommendations, and 30-day mortality rates.

Survey Says!: 40 of the 82 hospitals had a Facebook page to qualify for the research. Study authors found there was, indeed, a significant negative relationship between hospital Facebook “Likes” and 30-day mortality rates. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between “Likes” and patients’ recommendations of the hospital via the HHS Hospital Compare website.

Quotable: “In a recent study, 94% of respondents who gather health care information from social media use Facebook specifically [reference]” (p. 1).

“This research speaks to Facebook’s potential as a monitoring and evaluation tool that provides continuous data collection and allows researchers to gauge attitudes without costly and time-consuming surveys” (p. 2).

“Contrary to the hypothesis, teaching hospitals were found to be negatively associated with Facebook ‘Likes’” (p. 4).

“If one takes the existence of a Facebook page as a sign of hospitals’ public relations savvy, this suggests that patient recommendation is not simply a reflection of hospital quality but also is responsive to hospital public relations management. This finding supports the idea that patient recommendation is affected by variables outside of the model used and is an interesting topic for further research” (p. 6-7).

So What?: The researchers admit these findings may be “intuitive,” but are important to verify Facebook’s potential value to monitor patient satisfaction and quality care. This article is fascinating, and the authors do a good job of pointing out study limitations and opportunities for future research. Perhaps you should share it with your hospital’s communications/marketing department?

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How Leadership Behaviors Impact Critical Care Nurse Job Satisfaction

by Nursetopia on February 22, 2013

Screen Shot 2013-02-21 at 9.52.01 PM The Article: Moneke, N. & Umeh, O. (2013). How leadership behaviors impact critical care nurse job satisfaction. Nursing Management, 44(1): 53-55.

The Big Idea: Nurses’ job satisfaction is correlated with many organizational, financial, and patient health outcomes. The authors of this article discuss analysis of 112 surveys completed by critical care nurses within a New York nonprofit healthcare organization. The surveys inquired of job satisfaction in light of five perceived leadership behaviors: enabling others to act, encouraging the heart, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, and modeling the way.

Survey Says!: The researchers discovered critical care nurse satisfaction is significantly and positively correlated with four of the five leadership behaviors – model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, and enable others to act. Interestingly, “encouraging the heart” was not correlated with critical care nurse job satisfaction.

Quotable: “And organizational empowerment [is] found to be directly associated with job satisfaction, particularly in areas where nurses feel they can impact policy [reference]…Studies suggest that leader behaviors can affect the work climate, which in turn affects financial results [reference]” (p. 53).

“Exemplary leaders model the way by making explicit that there are no gaps between ‘what they say they do and their explanations for their actions’ and ‘what they actually do and the real reasons for their actions [reference]‘” (p. 54).

So What?: For the most part, people leave organizations because of their leaders and managers. Leadership, leadership, leadership; it makes a difference. Organizations need to invest in their managers, and develop them as authentic leaders. It’s a retention strategy for both the managers and the frontline team members. Current leaders and managers should take note of these behaviors and develop them personally to impact their teams and their careers. High-performing teams don’t just happen, and when they do happen, people tend to look for the leader who created them. Be that leader.

 

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