If You’re Awkward and You Know It, Speak Up: The Far-Reaching Impact of Communication Within Healthcare (1 Class A CE)

Effective communication is a crucial skill within healthcare that often faces many barriers. The increasing number and complexity of barriers in recent years lends to a lack of willingness to engage in difficult and awkward conversations among peers. Members need to understand this and other critical elements to strengthen these skills within themselves as leaders and to support them within their organizations to promote patient safety as well as psychological safety. The presentation will focus on the elements of effective communication, identifying barriers, as well as facilitators. The presentation will also provide successful strategies from other organizations and language used to “speak up” in the moment to empower individuals to advocate for patient safety, as well as strategize techniques to assist individuals and leaders with difficult conversations7. According to The Joint Commission’s 2023 Report on sentinel events, communication failures were among the top leading causes for events6. Therefore, it is our responsibility to understand, share, and apply these evidence-based findings into our practice. Empowering CRNAs and members of the health workforce to use their voice requires commitment from organizations as well as individuals to uphold the principles of psychological safety.