An Idea

So I have this idea. I want to somehow help improve nursing practice here. Okay, I'm not any kind of expert on organizational change… I don't even have enough experience to justifiably make judgments and suggestions on practice improvement in a hospital I've only been in 3 months, in a country and continent I've been in for less than 6. However, … I do think I have to start somewhere and I do think things can change for the better, regardless of whether I'm in Canada or Katete. I've talked about some of the issues happening here, some nursing-specific issues among others, and I've heard the same complaints over and over again from the physicians and other staff. And I've always thought that complaining is absolutely pointless unless someone decides to do something about it. So that's where I am. I've talked to people, done some informal mini-surveys to get a feel of the situation and what could be helpful, and here's my idea: create a series of educational sessions for nursing staff. The goal is twofold: 1) provide a process that supports quality nursing care to the public and 2) support nurses in a commitment to lifelong learning. An example: Topic - cardiovascular system. We would discuss this system, go over a nursing assessment (demo), talk about common conditions, and go through case studies (Mr. Banda is 1 day post-op, here are his vitals and complaints, what would you do in this situation?). The hope is that this kind of interaction will get nurses thinking, get them talking, maybe get them excited to learn more, perhaps even on their own time. Maybe eventually there can be a more formal continuing competence program, but since there's nothing of the sort at the moment and nurses don't do anything work-related outside work time…I think we need to take baby steps.
Talking about this with nurses on the wards was exciting - people were interested, telling me this is definitely needed, gave me suggestions, told me they'd come to these meetings, blah blah blah. I learned that sometimes you have to offer an incentive to get people to come (money, snacks), and most people don't like 'work stuff' unless it's part of work…but still, I felt fairly confident and excited about the whole thing.

So, I had the first meeting today. The agenda was basic - talk about the idea, get some feedback, make a timeline. I had spoken to some nurses before to remind them of the meeting, and distributed a memo to each of the wards in advance. Again, I got a good response, the memos were taped neatly to the desks by the charge nurses for everyone to read. Even this morning nurses talked to me about it, said they'd be there. You can see where this is going, right? Yep, nobody came. Not one. Okay, there were three of us, but not one Zambian nurse. What the heck?! Honestly, I'm not super surprised, and it did turn out to be a productive meeting with the three of us, so I'm not that disappointed, but still. Why didn't anyone come? How can I get people interested in their work? Am I looking at things the wrong way? Maybe I'm making too many assumptions, and my thoughts on nursing just don't fit in this setting, and continuing education isn't something that's wanted. Or maybe it just needs to happen in a different way. Thoughts??