Here are some suggestions for getting your staff to buy into your facility's safety program.

• Know the rules. As manager, you have to be the backbone of the safety program. Stay current on the rules and regulations required by OSHA and the accrediting agencies, including effective dates for compliance and penalties for non-compliance.
• Keep it positive. Don't present a safety program with an "I don't like it any more than you do, but we have no choice" attitude. If you're not enthusiastic and serious about workplace safety, your staff won't be either.
• Practice what you preach. It's not good if your staff sees the nurse manager recapping a needle.
• Promote staff involvement. You can't force safety down the throats of your staff. Let the staff have a say in which sharps or latex-free gloves you evaluate and take their comments seriously. The bottom line: If they find the safer devices easy to use, they'll use them. If they find them less convenient, they likely won't.
• Sway the opinion leaders. You know the staff members, including surgeons, whose word carries more weight than some of the others. Get these opinion leaders on your side.
• Make your employees responsible. Empower a few nurses to develop a teaching program. They can place posters and storyboards in the workplace and report on safety compliance at staff meetings.
• Monitor compliance. If you see single-use devices being improperly reused or two-handed recapping of syringes, you need to correct and educate. Walk the floor at your facility and do periodic spot checks.
• Enforce compliance. Update your employee manual so that compliance with your safety program is a condition of employment, and discipline willful violators.
• Encourage anonymous reporting. You can't catch everything and neither can a "safety cop" on your staff. Encourage your staff to report safety violations and problems without fear of repercussions.
• Listen to patients. Don't presume that patients don't know when you're doing something wrong. Nurses get asked all the time questions like "When are you going to write ?wrong' on my left leg?"

A commitment to safety
You are the link between the boardroom and the operating room. Getting employee compliance for safety programs takes a lot of initiative, energy and continual diligence. Don't expect smooth sailing at all times, but if you show your commitment to it, the others will fall in line.

Contact Ann Geier at ageier@mindspring.com.