Adventures in Attitudes® (AIA) is an empowering program designed to help people understand that how they perceive and respond to events around them is their choice. This awareness is key to establishing personal responsibility and accountability in the midst of change, and it helps turn passive resistance into high-energy performance. The maternity nursing staff of an urban midwestern community hospital were required to attend the AIA Program prior to embarking on the extensive staff education and development program required for the evolution into a family-centered single room maternity care program. The nursing staff moved through the following ten areas critical to increasing self-awareness, changing attitudes and improving relationships - Effective Listening, Developing Communication Skills, Attitude Awareness, Dealing with Emotions, Understanding People, Attitudes of Personal Empowerment, Creative Problem-Solving, Team-Building Strategies, Motivational Power, and Reaching Your Potential.

Approximately thirty-five staff members attended a total of twenty-four hours of AIA training. Participants were given a self-administered survey response form prior to training and at two months and one year after the training. The survey asked respondents to describe how often people in their current work environment practiced ten specific behaviors - effective listening skills, communicating with a cheerful tone of voice, fostering teamwork, managing emotions, adapting to behavioral styles of others, criticizing others, problem-solving, celebrating successes, responding to customers, and goal setting.

Marked improvement, on average eighty-seven percent, was noted between the frequency of pre-training behaviors and the post-training behaviors. It is important to note that the staff made the transition to the Family Birthing Center (including the physical move to new facilities) three months after the initial AIA training.

The time and expense involved in providing nursing staff with the skills and insights needed to weather major change events clearly yielded positive results for the staff and, based on patient satisfaction data, the patients they care for.

Authors: Melinda Dunham Noonan, MS, RN; Robert E. Moran, MBA;

Limit the influence of stereotypes and create acceptance of differences with the Discovering Diversity Profile® - a confidential, self-directed instrument that explores diversity issues in the following key areas: Knowledge - what a person actually knows about differences and the source of that knowledge. Stereotypes and Information are measured here. Understanding - individual willingness to put yourself in another's position. Awareness and Empathy are measured here.