Communicating Wins

“What’s most effective for us is rounding and sending out flyers on GroupMe,” says Tabitha Smades, RN in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita. “You can never over-communicate. There are always people who say, ‘Oh, I don’t look at that. I turn off my notifications.’ Or ‘I’m only PRN and didn’t see the flyer.’”

Flyers are a key part of communicating victories. Labor reps typically create the flyers and then PPC members get them in members’ hands and post them. Having flyers available at membership meetings or other union events is also useful. “A lot of people don’t like emails,” notes Earline Shephard, RN and PPC member for six years at Saint Louis University Hospital (SLUH) in St. Louis, Mo. “We’ll have flyers at our monthly membership meetings. We hold three membership meetings so we can get the day shift along with the night shift.”

At SLUH, flyers are the primary way the PPC lets members know about PPC successes. “We’ll post flyers on refrigerators and on the doors of break rooms,” says Shephard, who works in SLUH’s cardiac catheterization lab. “We’ll also put flyers in the lockers of night shift nurse reps so they can pass them out to nurses on their shift.”

At St. Joseph’s, Smades says PPC members will post a flyer on the bulletin board in the break room and leave extras on the table. People will also read the flyer on GroupMe. Every unit has a GroupMe, WhatsApp, or text group where wins are shared. Nurses at St. Joseph and St. Francis ratified their first contact in April 2024.

In Roseville, Calif., Kristy Lightle, RN and PPC chair at Sutter Roseville Medical Center says the PPC manages a Facebook page. “We post wins in our private Facebook page,” says Lightle. “I’ll post a flyer on Facebook and then add a comment. It’s a helpful place where we highlight wins and share updates and information. We can share pictures, files, everything. It’s two-way communication.”
 

To get the word out to members immediately about big victories, these nurses often use texts or WhatsApp. At St. Francis, when seven wrongfully terminated nurses got their jobs back, the PPC immediately sent out a text message and then distributed flyers during rounding and posted the flyer on bulletin boards. At Kaiser San Jose, the PPC uses social media to immediately push out information to members. “Facebook is a great way to publicize stuff,” said Wright, a perioperative unit nurse who has been on the PPC for five years. “You can reach people at any time. Each unit has a WhatsApp group, too, which is also effective.”

Labor reps often put together monthly newsletters and send them out to membership in an email. At Kaiser San Jose, the PPC designs and writes a monthly one-page newsletter. The PPC members share the responsibility: Some write articles, some work on layout and design. The newsletter gets posted on bulletin boards and shared as an infographic in an email blast. “Try different things,” suggests Wright. “It doesn’t do us any good to have a newsletter if nobody reads it.”

Another way the PPC at Kaiser San Jose promotes its successes and shares information is at their monthly “Coffee and Contracts” sessions, which tackle different topics at each event. “We talk about PPC wins, challenges, whatever the issues are at the time and then get into the topic,” says Wright. “Our first event was on retirement, and it was in person. We thought maybe five people would show up and there was a line out the door.”

The events have been so popular, the PPC moved them to Zoom so more people could attend. Other topics have included “Contract 101” and clinical ladder.

“Never underestimate the power of word of mouth,” says Smades, who has served on St. Joseph’s PPC for a year and a half. “Tell your friends. My unit is small and specific so I frequently tell people what’s going on and try to make them feel a part of it.”

“Be patient, stay positive, and definitely brag about the wins,” advises Lightly. “All the small wins add up, so communicate all the wins.”“The most effective way to publicize wins is multiple ways — newsletters, rounding, tabling, WhatsApp, Facebook — all the things,” says Monte Wright, RN at Kaiser San Jose and member of the professional practice committee (PPC) at his facility. “But no matter which technology you leverage, nothing replaces face-to-face communication.”
 

Aaron Rauber, RN and PPC member at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis in Wichita, Kan., agrees. “I’m a big believer of in-person communication,” says Rauber, a nurse in the neurological intensive care unit (ICU) at St. Francis. “During rounding as part of PPC meetings, we hand out flyers and I tell nurses this is what happened, and this is why it happened. Depending on what’s going on, I sometimes round on other days.”

The PPC is a committee run by staff nurses and is part of every California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) collective bargaining agreement. The PPC members set the agenda and meet in the hospital on paid time. They track unsafe conditions through an independent documentation system called the Assignment Despite Objection (ADO) and regularly meet with management to address unresolved issues. The PPC has the power to make real change in the facility.

It’s important to let members know about PPC wins, but it can be challenging to get the word out. Members each have their own communications preferences, and many units have their own group chats (texting, GroupMe, WhatsApp, etc.). Some members do not regularly check emails or are not on social media. That’s why rounding is such a tried-and-true method as well as telling members about victories at meetings and events.

“What’s most effective for us is rounding and sending out flyers on GroupMe,” says Tabitha Smades, RN in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita. “You can never over-communicate. There are always people who say, ‘Oh, I don’t look at that. I turn off my notifications.’ Or ‘I’m only PRN and didn’t see the flyer.’”

Flyers are a key part of communicating victories. Labor reps typically create the flyers and then PPC members get them in members’ hands and post them. Having flyers available at membership meetings or other union events is also useful. “A lot of people don’t like emails,” notes Earline Shephard, RN and PPC member for six years at Saint Louis University Hospital (SLUH) in St. Louis, Mo. “We’ll have flyers at our monthly membership meetings. We hold three membership meetings so we can get the day shift along with the night shift.”

At SLUH, flyers are the primary way the PPC lets members know about PPC successes. “We’ll post flyers on refrigerators and on the doors of break rooms,” says Shephard, who works in SLUH’s cardiac catheterization lab. “We’ll also put flyers in the lockers of night shift nurse reps so they can pass them out to nurses on their shift.”
 

At St. Joseph’s, Smades says PPC members will post a flyer on the bulletin board in the break room and leave extras on the table. People will also read the flyer on GroupMe. Every unit has a GroupMe, WhatsApp, or text group where wins are shared. Nurses at St. Joseph and St. Francis ratified their first contact in April 2024.

In Roseville, Calif., Kristy Lightle, RN and PPC chair at Sutter Roseville Medical Center says the PPC manages a Facebook page. “We post wins in our private Facebook page,” says Lightle. “I’ll post a flyer on Facebook and then add a comment. It’s a helpful place where we highlight wins and share updates and information. We can share pictures, files, everything. It’s two-way communication.”

To get the word out to members immediately about big victories, these nurses often use texts or WhatsApp. At St. Francis, when seven wrongfully terminated nurses got their jobs back, the PPC immediately sent out a text message and then distributed flyers during rounding and posted the flyer on bulletin boards. At Kaiser San Jose, the PPC uses social media to immediately push out information to members. “Facebook is a great way to publicize stuff,” said Wright, a perioperative unit nurse who has been on the PPC for five years. “You can reach people at any time. Each unit has a WhatsApp group, too, which is also effective.”

Labor reps often put together monthly newsletters and send them out to membership in an email. At Kaiser San Jose, the PPC designs and writes a monthly one-page newsletter. The PPC members share the responsibility: Some write articles, some work on layout and design. The newsletter gets posted on bulletin boards and shared as an infographic in an email blast. “Try different things,” suggests Wright. “It doesn’t do us any good to have a newsletter if nobody reads it.”

Another way the PPC at Kaiser San Jose promotes its successes and shares information is at their monthly “Coffee and Contracts” sessions, which tackle different topics at each event. “We talk about PPC wins, challenges, whatever the issues are at the time and then get into the topic,” says Wright. “Our first event was on retirement, and it was in person. We thought maybe five people would show up and there was a line out the door.”

The events have been so popular, the PPC moved them to Zoom so more people could attend. Other topics have included “Contract 101” and clinical ladder.

“Never underestimate the power of word of mouth,” says Smades, who has served on St. Joseph’s PPC for a year and a half. “Tell your friends. My unit is small and specific so I frequently tell people what’s going on and try to make them feel a part of it.”

“Be patient, stay positive, and definitely brag about the wins,” advises Lightly. “All the small wins add up, so communicate all the wins.”