Proposed Organizational Policy
Though organizational change is crucial, it is sometimes time-consuming and may feel difficult for stakeholders who are required to acclimatize to varying expectations. Nurse leaders are anticipated to create positive transformations to healthcare policies either at the unit, local, state, or national level. Nurse leaders are responsible for supervising nursing personnel at the unit or department level, over and above overseeing budgeting progressions and upholding communication between nurses and the management. Presently, the role of nurse leaders has grown to encompass contribution to the policymaking progression at all levels (Vestal, 2013). Nursing leadership should ensure that health facilities have an adequate number of nurses and collaboration to prevent burnout and uphold the quality of care.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a section of the US Department of Health and Human Services, identifies nurse leaders as agents of change attributable to their working with nurses and management to make policies and ensure effective practices. Nurse managers guide unit personnel in the prevention of harm and empowerment, which ensures that they are on the front line to realize quality care. On a broader scope, they are involved in influencing policies that benefit communities (Melhado, 2014). Essential policy concerns for nurses encompass successful practices, recruitment of nurses and facilities on demand, and the establishment of healthy working environments.
Interpretation for Stakeholders
There is a need for nurse leaders to improve the delivery of care by ensuring enough nurses to avoid workload and ensuing burnout. The senior leadership at St Anthony Medical Center, clinical stakeholders, and non-clinical stakeholders should understand the necessity for the proposed strategy and practice recommendations. The stakeholders include Harold Liss, a physician; Janie Poole, clinical nurse; Tara Jennings, nurse informatics; Vickie Vasquez, care coordinator; Deborah McNary, community advocate; and Ruby Young, board member. Policymaking is a function that generates performance standards for caregivers, governmental organizations, and other agencies concerned with patient care and safety.
On an international scale, critical nurse leaders’ concerns include ensuring access to care for all, focusing on the needs of diverse patients (children, adults, and the elderly), and upholding the quality of care. They should be sure that they have a clear picture not just of the number of changes but also the scope and impact of arising changes (Trastek et al., 2014). Therefore, nurse leaders should create a list containing all change practices while considering the source and cause of every transformation. For instance, some change endeavors will arise from corporate practices or the administration, while others will be unit, service, or need-driven.
Proposed Policy and Practice
The proposal for the nurse leader to ensure adequate staffing will alter the practices of nurses by ensuring that they will have sufficient time to address the needs of each patient effectively. Adequate staffing will reduce nurses’ workload by ensuring that they have fewer patients (Vestal, 2013). This will alter the responsibilities of nurses and other stakeholders since they will be highly required to ensure the quality of care and positive patient outcomes. The proposal will improve the working environment and conditions for all stakeholders by guaranteeing a work-life balance. Improved working conditions go a long way to preventing distress and burnout among nurses.
Improve Quality and Outcomes
Adequate staffing will improve quality and results for all stakeholders’ work by ensuring that they can exhaust every patient’s needs and uphold collaboration and teamwork amongst themselves. Such improvements will support the stakeholder group to be more successful attributable to the reduced possibility of making mistakes. When nurses take care of too many patients simultaneously, they are at the risk of getting stressed out, which will cause medical errors and mistakes (Grossman & Valiga, 2020). This results in improved patient outcomes, which translates to increased satisfaction for caregivers, patients, and other stakeholders.
Strategies for Collaborating
Health professionals should ensure and support collaboration with stakeholders to properly implement vital policies and practice guidelines. Engaging stakeholders as active contributors to policymaking processes influence health facilities and patient care positively. Nurse leaders should let all stakeholder groups feel that their opinions are treasured by the management (Terzic-Supic, et al., 2015). The participation of all stakeholders is essential as they ensure a vast pool of important ideas and finances for vital projects. Moreover, stakeholders ensure checks and balances to make sure that everything proceeds smoothly and as planned. This creates a nursing environment that maintains respect, teamwork, and partnership for shared success.
Conclusion
Though organizational change is vital, it is sometimes cumbersome and might feel challenging for stakeholders who should acclimatize to the varying expectations. Nurse leadership should ensure adequate staffing and collaboration to prevent burnout and promote quality of care. Significant policy concerns for nurses encompass effective practices, staffing, healthy working environments, and provision of supplies and facilities on demand. Nurse leaders should improve the quality of care by ensuring enough nurses to evade workload and subsequent burnout. Adequate staffing will alter the practices of nurses by guaranteeing that they will have ample time to tackle the needs of each patient successfully. Collaboration with stakeholders ensures the proper implementation of crucial policies and practice guidelines.
References
Grossman, S. C., & Valiga, T. M. (2020). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of nursing (4th ed.). FA Davis Company.
Melhado, E. M. (2014). Evolution of health planning (1970s–Present). In T. R. Oliver (Ed.), Guide to US health and health care policy (pp. 157-167). CQ Press
Terzic-Supic, Z., Bjegovic-Mikanovic, V., Vukovic, D., Santric-Milicevic, M., Marinkovic, J., Vasic, V., & Laaser, U. (2015). Training hospital managers for strategic planning and management: a prospective study. BMC Medical Education, 15(1), 1-9.
Trastek, V. F., Hamilton, N. W., & Niles, E. E. (2014). Leadership models in health care—A case for servant leadership. In V. F. Trastek, N. W. Hamilton, & E. E. Niles (Eds.), Mayo clinic proceedings (Vol. 89, No. 3, pp. 374-381). Elsevier.
Vestal, K. (2013). Change fatigue: A constant leadership challenge. Nurse Leader, 11(5), 10-11.