To Prepare:
Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.
Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.
Post an explanation of how competing needs, such as the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients, may impact the development of policy. Then, describe any specific competing needs that may impact the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected. What are the impacts, and how might policy address these competing needs? Be specific and provide examples. Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
References (may use)
http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html
http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html
Module I
The National Healthcare issue/stressor and its impact on the organization
The selected healthcare issue involves inadequate training and development opportunities for nurses in the country. Most nurses in the country lack the required skills, thus limiting their service delivery, quality of services offered to the patients, and patient outcomes (Sklar, Hemmer & Durning, 2018).
Inadequate training and development opportunities have affected my organization. First, the healthcare facility has been headed by AD nurse managers for several years. These nurse managers lack the required skill and knowledge due to limited training and development opportunities. These managers were unable to evaluate nurses and coordinate staff during care delivery, which, in turn, results in the delivery of poor quality services and patient outcomes. Consequently, baccalaureate and higher prepared nurses were not satisfied with the leadership of AD nurse managers. As a result, they raised concerns and complaints about being supervised and evaluated by less educated incompetent managers. The nurses were also concerned about the lack of EB changes for improving the quality of healthcare services and patient outcomes. Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Additionally, inadequate training and development opportunities limited the performance capability of nurses with master’s degrees. These nurses served as staff nurses in the facility due to the lack of training programs where they could polish their skills to meet the changing needs of clients in the healthcare sector. Therefore, the underutilization of these nurses limits them from benefiting the institution. Also, the lack of appropriate leadership increases stress among the staff nurses which needs to be considered (Marshall & Broome, 2017 p.184)
Furthermore, limitation of training and development opportunities hindered nurses from acquiring skills, which would be useful in other areas apart from their field of specialization. Consequently, these nurses could not collaborate with each other during care delivery, which, in turn, compromised the quality of healthcare services. Additionally, these nurses could not assist their colleagues in case of emergency or high traffic in other units.
Article Summary
D\’Eramo, A & Puckett, J, B. (2014).Quality and Safety Education for Nurses: Is It Time to Rethink Quality Improvement Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes? Journal of Nursing Education, 53(11):604-605.
The article discusses the significance of educating nurses in limiting cases of preventable errors, which are identified in most healthcare organizations. In particular, D\’Eramo and Puckett (2014) advocate reforming the curricula of all of the healthcare staff rather than focusing on the nurses only. Improvement knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) of all healthcare workers will minimize patients’ health care risks. According to D\’Eramo and Puckett (2014), medical practitioners should possess some skills for them to understand the significance of process improvement. Additionally, those skills would enable them to identify an appropriate intervention strategy and assess possible outcomes.
Bvumbwe, T, M & Mtshali, N, G. (2018). A middle-range model for improving the quality of nursing education in Malawi. National Institutes of Health, 41(1): 1766.
According to Bvumbwe and Mtshali (2018), training institutions of healthcare practitioners need guidance to improve their productivity. Additionally, the current curricula should be changed to bridge the gap between the expectations of the patients and the healthcare services offered to them by nurses in medical facilities.
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Strategies used by other Organizations to address this Issue
Most healthcare organizations in the country have implemented some measures to address the issue of inadequate training and development opportunities for the nurses. First, organizations are using formal curricula in training their nurses and other healthcare staff. Also, they are implementing other existing models of training, including the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT). This model improves the attitude of staff towards teamwork (Singh, 2015). Consequently, they are able to collaborate with each other during care delivery, thus improving the quality of services offered to the patients and the level of patient output.
Summary of the Strategies
The article, which was authored by D\’Eramo and Puckett (2014), focused on the possession of improved knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), thus enabling healthcare staff to contribute towards reducing patients’ health care risks. Additionally, the article focused on Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) to improve the knowledge and skills of the nurses, thus enhancing their level of service delivery in the medical facility.
Secondly, the article that was written by Singh (2015), utilized the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT) as the primary model of training healthcare workers. This model was utilized to improve team skills and team collaboration of the staff.
The impact of these Strategies on the Organization
Strategies that were utilized in both articles are likely to affect the organization both positively and negatively. On the negative side, lack of improved knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) among the nurses is likely to prevent them from reducing patients’ health care risks in the organization. On the positive side, the use of the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT) in training healthcare workers will improve team skills and the collaboration of healthcare workers. This move will improve the quality of healthcare services offered to the patients as well as positive patient and staff outcomes (Singh, 2015). Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
References
Bvumbwe, T, M & Mtshali, N, G. (2018). A middle-range model for improving the quality of nursing education in Malawi. National Institutes of Health, 41(1): 1766.
D\’Eramo, A & Puckett, J, B. (2014).Quality and Safety Education for Nurses: Is It Time to Rethink Quality Improvement Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes? Journal of Nursing Education, 53(11):604-605.
Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Singh, I. (2015). Training and Professional Development for Nurses and Healthcare Support Workers: Supporting Foundation for Quality and Good Practice for Care of the Acutely III Older Person. International Archives of Nursing and Health Care, 1:2.
Sklar, D. P., Hemmer, P. A., & Durning, S. J. (2018). Medical Education and Health Care Delivery. Academic Medicine, 93(3), 384–390
Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
In order to develop a nursing policy, the competing needs should align with the policy’s agenda. This means that competing needs significantly influence policy development because some of the needs are prioritized by policymakers. For example, the need to ensure to have adequate staff members and the need to ensure continuous professional development for the staff may influence policy development; however, one need may be prioritized over the other. In healthcare organizations, the competing need likely to have the greatest impact on the quality of care and patient health outcomes is the need likely to significantly influence policymaking (Kelly & Porr, 2018).
The needs of the workforce and resources are the competing needs likely to impact the issue of inadequate training and development opportunities for staff members in my workplace. This is because there is a need for the organization to have staff members who are adequately trained (workforce needs). In addition, the need for resources is necessary to facilitate development opportunities for the staff members and also to recruit staff members who are adequately and competently skilled (Sheriff, 2014).
A policy provides the set of general courses of action to guide the desired outcome and is an essential guideline during decision-making. Therefore, a policy would provide a guideline regarding how the competing needs should be addressed and the need that should be given preference over the other (Sheriff, 2014). In addition, the policy would communicate how competing needs should be handled to provide the desired organizational outcomes.
References
Kelly, P & Porr, C. (2018). “Ethical Nursing Care Versus Cost Containment: Considerations to Enhance RN Practice,” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 6.
Sheriff N. (2014). Factors that act as facilitators and barriers to nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development. BMC Nurs,13(20).
Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues