nursingforsocialjustice

Sometimes I feel like there were a few steps missed when I was in school…from when I was in high school to every university program I have been in. Electronic communication has changed dramatically since I was in high school in the late 1990s. Do they teach grade school kids about things like proper email etiquette? I am realizing more and more that there are skills that are necessary to function optimally in health care and social service work that are not touched on the education part of our training nor in the work orientation part of training. I think this is interesting because we send a lot of emails, create and complete a lot of forms and do a lot of electronic documentation but do not have great training in how to do this effectively. Learning proper communication in verbal, written and electronic forms is not an adjunct or a nice to know thing about the job, it is a necessary component in being able to do the job. I think that there is so much variability in what everyone does in terms of writing emails that the utility of them becomes lost. I also think there is so much potential to improve continuity or care and communication among health care professionals within teams and between teams with improvements in email communication.

I remember doing a lot of different projects in school, where the teachers did not specifically focus on the medium being used to communicate the content of the project…or did they? I have noticed that a lot of information necessary to do the job in health care workplaces is done via email. In some of the places that I work I find that is a daily inundation of email communications, often making it difficult to get to the important information because there is so much unimportant information. I really started to think about this when I opened an email yesterday that was challenging to read because the subject line was not clear, and the body of the email itself included large fonts, different colours and pictures. The information in the email was important, but it was lost.

I often ask myself these questions:

At the orientation level why isn’t more time spent on teaching people how to communicate effectively in all the ways that are used in the organization?

Why is there the assumption made that people are great at this and the training is needed only in the interface being used such as electronic charting programs?

Are there better electronic means of communicating specific to the information being communicated?

Would it benefit all health care workers if there was module about creating professional emails for email communication included in job training/orientation?

I think that there needs to be professional development for communication. I think that job orientation needs to include training on proper documentation with respect to the organization and also the standards of practice of each specific college. For example, there are standards that Registered Nurses need to adhere to and the organization should support this.

Tips for Writing a Good Professional Email

1. Only send the email to those appropriate. If a mass communication was sent and you are replying you may not need to “reply all”.
2. Write a subject line that accurately reflects the content of the email.
3. Think about readability. Would clarity of the email improve by using numbered points or bullets?
4. Spell check and proof read before sending.
5. Include a professional signature at the end of your email. Some information that you may want to include: full name, professional designation, the team that you work for/unit that you work on, telephone and email contact information.
6. If the information is something important like a change in policy or procedure, that staff will need future access to then also put it in a more permanent place, like a policy and procedure manual and include in the email where it can be found.
7. Remember to change the settings of your email if you are going to be out of the office for an extended period of time so that those emailing you are not waiting for a speedy reply.