Our partners’ frontline healthcare professionals are doing incredible work to strengthen patient connections, engage in team collaboration, and develop skills to make a meaningful impact.
We’re delighted to share the experiences of two exceptional staff from our partner organization, King’s Daughter Medical Center, a healthcare system serving residents in Ashland, KY. Melissa and Dee have participated in our skill-building solution within the Practicing Excellence platform, where they have gained valuable insights and practical tools to enhance their interactions with patients and colleagues.
Dee Hollister, LPN, UK/King’s Daughters Medical Center-Burlington Urgent Care
What made you decide to try Practicing Excellence, and what were your initial hopes or expectations?
It was the intense encouragement from leadership to complete a Practicing Excellence program that made me decide to try it. Initially, it was a race between expecting to sit through hours of boring, monotone videos and hoping to be wrong. Hope won the race. The videos were short, concise, and energetic while also maintaining their purpose of education.
Can you tell me about a specific challenge or pain point you used Practicing Excellence to help you with?
Understanding patient barriers was a huge challenge for me, and I was able to overcome that because of the specific knowledge and skills that I obtained from a Practicing Excellence program.
Walk us through a specific example of how you implemented a Practicing Excellence technique and the immediate impact you observed.
One day while rooming a patient and their spouse, it became quite clear that they were both extremely frustrated and offended about an issue the patient was repeatedly experiencing (unrelated to the patient’s visit). It was the active listening technique that empowered me to be able to resolve this issue for them. They were very grateful and expressed genuine appreciation to me for taking the time to really listen to their concerns about this issue, verbalize my understanding, and resolve it for them.
How has using PE impacted your interactions with patients and/or your team?
I’m now able to utilize a number of techniques from Practicing Excellence in all levels of direct patient care, which has greatly improved the impact of my interactions not just with patients but with their family members as well.
How has Practicing Excellence changed the way you operate today, and what benefits have you discovered?
The pursuit of excellence is a lifelong adventure full of ever-changing roads in a perpetual state of constructional evolution. Practicing Excellence is the ultimate traveler’s companion providing the knowledge and skills required, when used daily, to successfully navigate the adventure.
The benefits are countless and as unique as the roads to their discovery.
How has it affected you personally and professionally?
Applying the knowledge gained and skills learned from Practicing Excellence on a daily basis has proven to have a positive effect on every facet in both aspects of my life.
I was raised with two beliefs:
- Whatever you do, do it right or don’t do it at all
- For it to be right, it must be excellent.
Practicing Excellence provides the ability to make both beliefs a reality.
Mylissa Bentley, Patient/Office Coordinator, Oncology Services Ashland
What made you decide to try Practicing Excellence, and what were your initial hopes or expectations?
As a new UK King’s Daughters team member transitioning from a career in education to patient care, my hopes for “Practicing Excellence” were that I would be provided exposure and training in strategies that not only enhance my current skills but also help to develop skills that would support meeting the needs of our patients in the best way possible.
Can you tell me about a specific challenge or pain point you used Practicing Excellence to help you with?
Being new to UK KDMC and the Hematology/Oncology department, I was an unfamiliar face to the patients. I understood that patients may not feel comfortable with me right away, as they needed time to “learn me.”
The training modules in the Practicing Excellence program helped me begin to build meaningful relationships with our patients by communicating authentic pride in our organization. As patients began to realize the faith I have in our organization and the excellent care we provide, I could see the relationships strengthening. Through these relationships, I hope to instill trust and confidence in our patients, helping them to feel safe, welcome, and valued.
Walk us through a specific example of how you implemented a Practicing Excellence technique and the immediate impact you observed.
One Practicing Excellence technique I have implemented is to establish a welcoming first impression. It is important that patients feel welcomed by those who provide care for them in order to form a commitment to the treatment and care they will receive. If patients do not feel welcome, they will not return for their care.
Understanding this, I try my best to smile and say hello to each and every patient, telling them I am glad to see them. Taking an extra moment to ask how they are doing helps me to show compassion and provides an opportunity for me to reassure them and tell them they are in the right place…helping also to establish patient confidence and trust in our organization.
How has using PE impacted your interactions with patients and/or your team?
Using PE has had a positive impact on my daily interactions with both my patients and my team. I am more aware of first impressions and how critical they are to the overall relationship with the patient. In addition, the importance of letting patients know they are not alone—that we will be with them through this journey—is monumental. Making the effort to support our patients and helping them to know we are here for them has allowed us to form bonds with our patients, creating lasting connections. Furthermore, besides providing a more positive and supportive experience for our patients, the strategies learned through the PE program have strengthened our team in leadership and support of one another.
How has Practicing Excellence changed the way you operate today, and what benefits have you discovered?
The Practicing Excellence program has emphasized the importance of making patient connections. Through these connections, patients gain confidence and trust in our organization, making it more possible for us to care, serve, and heal.
How has it affected you personally and professionally?
Professionally, I am thankful for the opportunity to develop and enhance the skills necessary to provide excellent service and care to our patients. Additionally, the strategies I am learning are helping me to be the best team member I can be, increasing my own professional and personal confidence, helping me to be a better leader and support to those around me.
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Now, more than ever, skill-building in healthcare is crucial. If you’re seeking support to kickstart your organization’s continuous improvement journey, get in touch with us now.
Practicing Excellence builds skills to drive outcomes in well-being, patient experience, and leadership effectiveness. Built for busy clinicians, our micro-learning solution delivers short, evidence-derived, video-based coaching to clinicians, leaders, and teams through our mobile app. We partner with some of the nations’ most prominent health systems and medical groups to deliver coordinated skill-building programs that provide measurable results. Learn more at practicingexcellence.com.
