Bedside Negotiation

MBA student Jamie Wlodarczak learned just how transferrable business skills can be – and in one of the most unlikely situations possible.

Her real-world negotiation skills were put to use in BC Children’s Hospital: Jamie is a registered nurse in the Cancer/Bone Marrow Transplant unit – obviously one of the most critical departments of the entire hospital. She works there part-time while earning her degree – and employed a perfect example of Beedie’s “learn it today; use it in your office tomorrow” philosophy.

Her regular rounds at the hospital include working with young patients undergoing chemotherapy, probably one of the most sensitive places where negotiation skills would ever be needed. And they were.

Her patient was a six year-old boy undergoing chemotherapy. Many of the drugs used will cause permanent damage to a patient’s veins, so a Venous Access Device (VAD) is used instead. It’s a small device that’s surgically implanted just under the skin in the upper chest – and is implanted with a needle. (Also commonly known as a “butterfly”.) Besides best medical practice, a VAD allows patients to receive medication and have blood work done without constant injections.

Everyone knows how children react to needles – or even the thought of them – whether from their own childhood, or their own children. And Jamie was faced with a anxious, reluctant little boy, with his mother in the hospital room.

Enter real-world negotiation skills.

Jamie “identified the problem”: the patient’s interests; the mother’s interest. She “consulted the third party” – the mother – who thought it best if Jamie, as nurse, worked the problem, so the child didn’t feel defensive against a number of adults.

Her “source of power” was her registered nurse position, and her knowledge of the procedure. The young boy’s “source of power” was his consent to let someone do something to his body – and his ability to make Jamie feel guilty, by crying, saying it wasn’t fair – all of the usual, perfectly normal reactions of a six year-old.

Jamie thought about how to negotiate this critical procedure in a timely manner, mindful of her other equally important duties on the ward.

She clearly explained why the insertion of this device was important, and focused on the “benefit” to the child – only one injection, this one, instead of a lot of needles. She used the appropriate mode of conversation with a child, and told him that a topical cream worked really well, and that he’d barely feel the insertion of the “butterfly”.

Most importantly, she thought of a way to give the little boy “a sense of control” over the situation. She offered some options to him – including the choice that he could count down before the insertion of the “butterfly’s” needle.

Still, more calming and reassuring was needed: the efficacy of the topical cream, that Jamie would do the insertion as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Reluctantly, he agreed. After 45 minutes (which anyone who knows children will understand) Jamie applied the topical cream to the six year-old’s chest. Then, the countdown – his countdown. From “five” to “now”, he felt he was controlling the procedure – and at “now”, Jamie rapidly and expertly inserted the butterfly.

The result: a little boy, already desperately ill, would, for the time being, no longer need injections of any kind. And Jamie’s result? A job well done – and her ability to continue with her rounds on the Cancer unit.

Jamie used this example in a paper for one of her MBA business courses – identifying the strengths and successes of the “negotiation”, and her lessons learned for the future.

SFU Beedie Professor David Hannah called her paper a “fascinating read”: Jamie Wlodarczak used her just-taught business negotiation skills to solve a problem in a truly life-threatening situation. Ideas@Beedie joins her instructor in kudos to a remarkable MBA student and the use of her knowledge in a remarkable situation.