Improving Quality and Safety in the Endoscopy Unit (Virtual) | November 2025-The Patient Experience Begins with the Employee Experience

Pdf Summary

Megan Norris, Nurse Manager at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center Endoscopy, presented on improving employee engagement to enhance patient experience. She defined employee experience as the complete journey of staff within an organization, influenced by workplace culture, leadership, technology, and environment. Employee engagement refers to employees' emotional commitment, enthusiasm, and active participation in their work.<br /><br />Norris shared her year-long efforts starting from a dip in employee engagement survey results in 2024, which showed a significant decrease compared to 2023. After analyzing these results with her leadership team, she attended training on leading post-survey actions and organized small group debrief sessions with staff to discuss feedback openly and safely. Staff selected two survey areas for focused action plans, which were implemented and followed up over three months.<br /><br />Additional initiatives to improve engagement included relocating her office into the department, setting quarterly one-on-one meetings, adding wellness resources, establishing a Unit Based Council, creating an On Call Respite Policy, launching an Employee of the Month program, and changing how staff concerns are addressed.<br /><br />By 2025, survey participation and engagement scores improved significantly. Norris emphasized encouraging honest feedback and onboarding new staff. The 2025 survey included a new question linking employee work to customer (patient) experience, highlighting that engaged employees contribute to better patient communication, productivity, and quality of care.<br /><br />Overall, the presentation demonstrated that fostering a positive employee experience through listening, inclusive action, and supportive leadership directly enhances the patient experience by creating a motivated, effective healthcare workforce.

Asset Subtitle

Megan Norris, BSN, CMSRN

Keywords

employee engagement

patient experience

workplace culture

leadership

employee experience

survey feedback

staff participation

wellness resources

Unit Based Council

healthcare workforce