Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Year of the Nurse - November 2020 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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1 6 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 P racticing daily gratitude is proven to have significant health and psycho- logical benefits, including improving quality of sleep, lowering depression levels, blood pressure and stress cortisol levels and diminishing feelings of hopelessness. Gratitude can take shape in many different ways — a smile, a thank you, a get-well card. It's the small acts of goodness that really make a difference. Meghan Glanc, MSN, RN, CNOR, nurse manager at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, began researching the benefits of daily grati- tude when traditional methods for improving her team's morale kept failing. After taking a leadership course that mentioned using grati- tude as a means for personal growth, Ms. Glanc decided to pursue this approach with her staff. She first created a gratitude com- mittee as an informal way to engage her team. "I said this is voluntary," she explains. "There are no expectations. There's really no agenda. We're just going to meet and build the committee together." What does gratitude mean exactly? It is different for everyone. Denise Slovan, admin- istrative assistant at the Cleveland Clinic and member of the gratitude committee, defined it as "an appreciation for every moment that is good. Because even though it could be a bad day, you can still find gratitude in some way." After emailing every staff member about her new idea, Ms. Glanc had participants take base- line happiness and stress level quizzes. "Honestly, my score was very low," she says. "I needed to do some work on myself, but I also wanted to identi- fy staff members who were in a bad place, and those who were in a good place, so we could work together and brainstorm about how to improve our lives." Ms. Glanc scheduled standing gratitude meet- ings during lunch breaks and created a calendar of daily gratitude activities to guide the commit- tee's meetings. Each participant was given a grati- tude journal in which they could jot down their feelings during the day. During meetings, people were encouraged to share tidbits from their grati- tude journals. Ms. Glanc shared that she loves Diet Coke. "One day, somebody left a two-liter bottle on my desk. I was floored, and so excited." Ms. Glanc's gratitude calendar included actions like smiling more often, not complaining all day, not gossiping, focusing on your strengths and making a gratitude collage. While these activities were practiced by participants of the gratitude committee, the benefits reached other staff mem- bers and departments. "For Valentine's Day, com- Gratitude Goes a Long Way Recognizing the good in each day creates positivity in the workplace. Staffing Maria Marabito Cleveland Clinic Foundation THANK YOU NOTES Members of the gratitude committee share inspirational messages to help build a close-knit community among the staff.

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