NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
Sample Answer for NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices Included After Question
Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations.
For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work more hours in a shift, they commit more errors. How do effective leaders find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of ensuring quality, effective, and safe patient care?
In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
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.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 3
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.
BY DAY 6 OF WEEK 3
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by providing additional thoughts about competing needs that may impact your colleagues’ selected issues, or additional ideas for applying
policy to address the impacts described.
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
Burnout among nurses compromises the quality of health-care services patients receive. The evidence-based practices require that nurses engage with their patients and create a friendly environment to identify their needs and develop better treatment measures. Besides, they have to take an adequate history of the patients and make accurate diagnoses. On the other hand, nurses experiencing burnout will not have the urgency to interact with the patients because they feel undervalued and insignificance. Various factors contribute to the burnout experiences among the nurses. Some of the factors include a poor working environment and relationship with the leaders. Alternatively, the increasing number of patients with chronic illnesses increases the demand for nursing services. Also, patients with terminal illnesses require palliative care which is dependent on the holistic care approach. Such environments cannot be achieved with the high incidence of burnouts among the nurses. Therefore, addressing the health issue will be important progress to improving the quality of life of the nurses and the quality of healthcare services patients receive.
Two Competing Needs Impacting Your Selected Healthcare Issue/Stressor
The previous analysis focused on improving the healthcare worker’s work-life in the University Of Florida Shands Hospital. The competing needs that could impact the burnout issues in the hospital include the need to improve leadership and management in the organization, the need to develop a collaborative culture that allows healthcare providers to share ideas widely and improve the patients’ management. Also, there is a need to promote nursing informatics in the institution, which will significantly improve the quality of healthcare services the patients receive. The healthcare system is dynamic and this means that the needs will also change from time to time. However, the ability of the healthcare institution to handle the needs as they arise depends on the leadership practices.
Furthermore, poor leadership contributes to a poor working environment, which ultimately contributes to high burnout among the nurses. As a result, there is an urgent need to embrace transformational leadership and a culture of collaboration in the institution. The leadership and cultural system will create a sense of belonging and so reduce the turnout rate as well as burnout incidences among the nurses. Furthermore, nursing informatics needs to aim at linking the patients to the healthcare providers and utilizing the available data to improve the quality of healthcare services the patients receive. It may appear futile to increase the number of nurses or even offer counsel when their working environment is unconducive. Integration of an automated data management system will allow the nurses to access the patients’ data and link with other departments easily and so minimize the time taken to attend to a patient.
Relevant Policy or Practice in Your Organization That May Influence Your Selected Healthcare Issue/Stressor
The policies for addressing the healthcare issue in the organization include the increased use of an outside agency to supply the nurses, offering of counseling programs, shifting the 12 hours of work to 8 hours in a day, and offering preceptors for each new employee during the training. The policies aim to improve the nursing experiences and making them more productive in the duties. The policy on increasing the nurse supply and reducing the ratio of patients to nurses will prevent overload and so allow the nurses to spend adequate time with their patients (Boamah et al., 2016). Inadequate supply of the nurses results in overload and prolonged working hours because of the ever ballooning number of patients.
On the other hand, the counseling programs seek to deal with the psychological concerns of the patients. Burnout is characterized by emotional and psychological exhaustion with the victims having low energies to deliver in their areas of responsibilities. Therefore, offering counseling services will help in identifying other factors likely to be contributing to burnout and how to address them. Furthermore, reducing the working hours from 12 to 8 hours means that the nurses will have time to rest and engage in social activities. Also, their levels of fatigue will reduce significantly (Liu et al., 2019).
Critique The Policy for Ethical Considerations
The policies and practices support the ethical principles guiding the healthcare practice. The goal of healthcare delivery is to promote healthy living and reduce suffering among patients. On the other hand, it may be impossible to reduce suffering among patients when the healthcare providers are suffering. Therefore, the practices aimed at improving the quality of life for the nurses and giving them the freshness to handle patients’ needs accordingly. Also, the policies support the ethics of justice. On the other hand, some of the policies regarding the promotion of ethics include discrimination in recruitment by external agencies. Furthermore, the counsellors could provide bias information or rather use the nurses’ data against them. The effectiveness of the counselling sessions depends on the transparency and openness between the nurses and their counsellors. There are cases where nurses may outline specific relating to the organization’s management. Lack of confidentiality from the counsellor could lead to exposing the nurses and affecting their working relationships further.
Policy or Practice Changes Designed To Balance The Competing Needs Of Resources, Workers, And Patients
The organization should embrace open forums where both the leaders and nurses can share their ideas and opinions on the work process. The policy will help in balancing the need to address nurse burnout and the leadership approaches in the organization. The forums will promote the transformational relationship between the nurses and the leaders and so facilitate quality healthcare delivery. Recruiting transformation leaders or rather offering training may require additional resources. Similarly, adding the number of nurses in the organization will require more financial input. However, creating open forums and regular meetings will help in devising collaborative methods to address the nurses working conditions and improve leadership experiences. Burnout is not always about inadequate staffing; however, employees’ experiences and interactions with the organization plays an important role.
According to Asif et al. (2019), transformational leaders seek to understand the experiences of the nurses and work with them to overcome the challenges. The regular interaction between the leaders and the nurses allows frequent communication and sharing of ideas that alleviate the burnout experiences among the nurses (Wu et al., 2020).
Conclusion
Finally, burnout is a serious concern in healthcare delivery. Proper policies should be developed to improve the working experiences of the nurses and allow them to offer quality healthcare services to the patients. There is a need to increasing the nursing staff, reduce the working hours and offer counselling services; however, the hallmark approach to burnout incidences is improving the leadership practice and working environment which stimulates passion for work among the nurses.
References
Asif, M., Jameel, A., Hussain, A., Hwang, J., & Sahito, N. (2019). Linking transformational leadership with nurse-assessed adverse patient outcomes and the quality of care: Assessing the role of job satisfaction and structural empowerment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(13), 2381. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132381
Boamah, S. A., Read, E. A., & Spence Laschinger, H. K. (2016). Factors influencing new graduate nurse burnout development, job satisfaction, and patient care quality: A time-lagged study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(5), 1182-1195. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13215
Liu, C., Liu, S., Yang, S., & Wu, H. (2019). Association between transformational leadership and occupational burnout and the mediating effects of psychological empowerment in this relationship among CDC employees: A cross-sectional study. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 12, 437-446. https://doi.org/10.2147/prbm.s206636
Wu, X., Hayter, M., Lee, A. J., Yuan, Y., Li, S., Bi, Y., Zhang, L., Cao, C., Gong, W., & Zhang, Y. (2020). A positive spiritual climate supports transformational leadership as means to reduce nursing burnout and intent to leave. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(4), 804-813. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12994
A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
In my opinion a huge problem with the shortage of bedside nurses is the lack of retention strategies. The unit that I work now is offering a $20,000 sign on bonus! To receive this a nurse only has to sign an agreement to work one year. Retention is the key, invest in the nurses that are already there. Turnover can be a costly problem for hospitals. The cost can be more than $64,000 per nurse (Jones & Gates, 2007). Maintaining a staffing ratio is a huge challenge for facilities, and is a reason nurses are leaving the bedside. This country needs a national mandate for staffing ratios more than anything. Other ways to increase retention is to increase nurse base pay, address nurse bullying, and offer better benefits (Morris, 2022). During my career I have had great benefits and insurance. Currently, the insurance I have is terrible, and very expensive. It is sad when a nurse can barely afford insurance for her family when she works for a hospital.
We could get more nurses through the door if just a few of these issues were addressed. We do not want free pizza and donuts, that does not pay the bills.
References
Jones, C., & Gates, M. (2007). The costs and benefits of nurse turnover: A business case for nurse retention. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol12no03man04Links to an external site.
Morris, G. (2022, May 6). How to Support Nurses and Raise Nurse Retention Rates. nurse journal. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://nursejournal.org/articles/how-to-support-nurses-considering-resigning/Links to an external site.
A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices
Nurse turnover has been plaguing the medical industry for decades, and as years pass, the concern remains costly and harmful to hospitals and patients alike. The turnover rate for hospitals currently stands at 17.8%. The national average for turnover rates is 8.8% to 37%, depending on geographic location and nursing specialty. A recent U.S. study showed that when patients were exposed to low staffing levels, the risk of a subsequent healthcare-associated infection increased by up to 15% (Ita Group,n.d). Having adequate staff is imperative for a decrease in medical errors, quality care, and good patient outcome. It is crucial that hospitals formulate strategies to retain nursing staff as it would be profitable to them, ensure quality patient care and safety, and build a thriving culture. Workplace stress is not uncommon among nurses, leading to burnout; it’s one of the top reasons for nurses to quit. As well as being underpaid and unappreciated. A nurse retention policy could be a great start to filling in the gap of nurse shortages. Through the implementation of this program, healthcare organizations demonstrate their commitment to investing in their nursing staff’s well-being, enhancing job satisfaction, and ultimately improving patient care (Wei et al., 2019). The happiness of your nurses can enhance their self-esteem and passion for professional roles and quality job performance.
Reference
Ita Group (n.d). 7 Things That Cause Nurse Turnover (and 8 Things That Stop It). Retrieved on March 18, 2023, From https://www.itagroup.com/insights/employee-experience/7-things-cause-nurse-turnover-8-things-to-stop-itLinks to an external site.
Wei, H., Roberts, P., Strickler, J., & Corbett, R. W. (2019). Nurse leaders’ strategies to foster nurse resilience.>Journal of nursing management,>27(4), 681-687. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12736Links to an external site.
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