How to mobilize an entire nursing unit

A recurring question is how you can mobilize an entire team, unit or department to work with lean. Too often, I see small groups of enthusiastic people who are wondering how to get the rest involved. One element you can use is a training for the entire unit. For the department of Orthopaedics this seemed to work well.

Recently, the department of Orthopaedics organised one evening and one day training in the Lean principles and tools for the entire care unit (60 nurses). They were very well prepared! Four months before the training day, they started to prepare and work towards it. All three departments (secretary, nursery department and outpatient clinic) got a digital camera in November to photograph improvement points or irritations (based on an idea of Neruosurgery, see previous blog), which provided more than 50 photographs of concrete waste or unsafe or unpleasant situations. These pictures have been printed on A3 size and laminated. At the training a reward was given to the person with the most striking picture. These pictures were used as starting points for improvements. Smart, because in this way you directly got 50 points of improvements provided by the people themselves on which they want to work.
 
They also made a movie for the training. They have put the process in scene from the moment that the OR calls for a patient to come for surgery until the patient is ready to leave the nursing department. This process takes 15 minutes, because the patient must change clothes, visit the toilet, medication is given and the bed prepared. The movie showed a lot of types of waste (that were actually not put in scene, but really happened). Employees recognized these immediately. A few examples: