Building team identity with branded scrubs
2 minute read
Building team identity with branded scrubs
< 1 minute read
At St. Rose, the discharge team wears red scrubs to build team spirit and make them easily identifiable by patients.
The Issue
When we first began our program, we were depending on nurse volunteers to enroll patients and make follow up phone calls. We gave everyone on the team a red scrub top to recognize them as volunteers and help build team spirit. Every Thursday the volunteer nurses would wear their red scrub tops.
As our program evolved to include full-time staff, we wanted to keep that sense of team spirit, but also wanted a more constant way of identifying the team. The red scrub tops were a great way of raising awareness of the program, but the volunteers only wore them one day a week. For patients, it was important that they were able to recognize who their advocates were among the many people that visited them everyday.
Background
St. Rose is a non-profit hospital in Hayward, CA. It has 217 beds and serves a diverse, low-income population including Spanish, Hindi, and Tagalog speakers. Their transitions program began in 2012 and is influenced by Project RED.
What We Tried
All the members of our transitions team now wear red scrub tops every day. It has become a way that we brand our program and the work that we do.
Impact
The red scrub tops reinforce our own sense of team spirit. Whenever we go to external events related to our program, you’ll see us all wearing red.
The scrub tops have also been very successful at making our program stand out in the minds of hospital staff and patients. Sometimes patients won’t remember us when we make our follow up phone call, but once we remind them that we were the ones wearing red scrub tops and who gave them a red notebook, they remember us and welcome our call.
Program Challenges: Motivating the Team
Topics: Organizational buy-in
Organizational Background
Organization Name: St. Rose Hospital
Location: St Rose Hospital, Calaroga Avenue, Hayward, CA, United States
Organization Type: Hospital