Chief Nursing Officer, Sally Brees, RN, DNP at Hillsboro Duncan Hospital hopes the Peek-A-Boo Method will improve patient quality metrics.
Brees explains, “The Peek-A-Boo Method is about the way you enter a patient’s room to engage them. At many hospitals you simply knock on the patient’s door, enter, and introduce yourself. But we’d like to try the Peek-A-Boo Method at Hillsboro Duncan.
With the Peek-A-Boo Method you:
Knock on the patient’s door
Open the door
Cover your face with both hands
Walk into the patient's room
Uncover your face and yell, “Hey, Whoo, Peek-A-Boo!”
On the surface, it doesn’t seem that the Peek-A-Boo Method would necessarily help. It might even startle some patients. But Brees assures us, “Dr. Leonard Horatio Baldwin, psychologist at the Brain and Mind institute says the Peek-A-Boo Method takes you back to happier times in your life. In the hospital setting, the method should not be used after 7 p.m., as patients are more likely to be startled, angry and annoyed.”
Dr. Baldwin explains, “The word Peek-A-Boo is disarming and has been shown to put a patient at ease like petting a puppy. As a child playing Peek- A-Boo is a basic developmental milestone. We are taking you back to a fun time in your life.
Most babies laugh when they play Peek-A-Boo.”
Brees assures that, “Peek-A-Boo respects privacy by having you announce yourself before entering a patient’s room. We must look at the baby stages of patient satisfaction. Think about what satisfied patients when they were babies.”
The “Peek” in Peek-A-Boo is an acronym: Patient Evidence of Emerging Knowledge. So, when a patient hears Peek-A-boo, they will know they are being cared for by a trained professional committed to excellence.
The jury is still out on the Peek-A-Boo Method but, Brees hopes nurses will be saying, “Hey, Whoo, Peek-A-Boo!” in a hospital near you.