Digging for Dinosaurs Contest
This contest is a way to engage staff in questioning their practices in a non-threatening and fun manner by identifying, changing or eliminating unnecessary and poor practices – because small changes can have a big impact.
- Topics
- Health workforce
:quality(80))
Have you ever asked yourself, “why do we do things this way?”
Do you consider your organization “cluttered” with unnecessary rules, policies and procedures? Do you think this clutter contributes to or distracts from safety? If so, the Digging for Dinosaurs contest is for you!
What's inside
Staff are encouraged to be curious and to reflect on their work practices, exploring those that bring value to safe care, and those that do not. Staff are encouraged to identify a rule, policy, safety procedure, document, process, or activity which they believe is unnecessary, poorly designed, does not promote safety or reduce potential harm, and is not evidence-based.
A panel reviews the submissions, judges the “dinosaurs” and determines which practices will be changed or eliminated.
Examples of dinosaurs
Keeping a patient from eating or drinking anything starting at midnight, when their surgery is not scheduled until after 2:00 p.m.
Documenting the same findings in more than one place in the patient’s record.
Having to manually transcribe details of a patient’s visit from one digital report to another.
Dismissing the same pop-up messages multiple times when documenting in an electronic tool.
Frequency of head-to-toe assessments.
Why this matters
Small changes can have big impact. Ongoing 'clutter' and tasks that add little value can be exhausting for staff and patients alike, leading them to wonder “Why am I bothering to do this?”
Adding administrative tasks and needless clutter may result in time focused on tasks that do not add value to the care and safety of patients, residents and clients.