Capella University Driving Change Assessment Essay

Capella University Driving Change Assessment Essay

Capella University Driving Change Assessment Essay

Problem Identification and How It Impacts the Organization, Patients, and the Nursing Profession

There are many challenges that affect the profession of nursing. These problems either affect the professionals offering different healthcare services or the organization working environment, or even the patients. This paper focuses on the issue of job hazards. The nurses face various hazards in the workplace, and this is a problem that has an impact even on the entire organization. Some of the hazards that exist which affect the nurses include the risk of infection when assisting the patients. Another hazard is that the healthcare givers can face workplace violence when working and especially in the odd hours. Hazards can also affect the patients directly. For example, slippery floor can occasion patients’ falls in the hospital and end up worsening the health condition. Other hazard risks include patient falling from the bed and spread of infections from one patient to another. All these challenges have a significant impact on the general progress of the healthcare organization (Brooker & Waugh, 2013). 

Workplace hazards negatively affect an organization in that its reputation greatly depends on the satisfaction and response of the staff and patients. If the risks become prevalent, both the employees and patients may develop a negative attitude towards the organization and hence withdraw their support. The hospital may face scrutiny from bigger health organization that are entitled to managing quality. When the patients are exposed to hazards, their health may be compromised significantly given that they stand a risk of developing new conditions. For instance, when a patient falls, he or she may develop new health conditions such as bone fractures and other injuries. The entire nursing profession is affected negatively. Many safety professionals consider a thorough job hazard analysis and job safety analysis with the aim of eliminating possible hazards that can hinder quality health care. Since hazards are obstacles, they have great potential to impair quality healthcare delivery. 

Evidence-Based Interventions for the Problem

Several bodies are involved in finding solutions for the presence of different hazards within the nursing practice. United States Department of Labor is one of those bodies, and it advocates for programs which are tailored in reducing workplace risks such as violence. Such programs entail improving safety of the nurses in the workplace by encouraging the use of protective attire and tools, creating a clean environment and increasing patient care through advancing technology and bettering the environment which might expose some risk factors to the patient (Antwi & Kale, 2014).  

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health also supports in creating solutions for the hazards in the workplace. This body published a full article entitled Hazards Review, which was designed to raise awareness about health risks and safety. The body also proposes some strategies that can be used to minimize hazards such as providing safety standards of the floor and so on. The World Health Organizations has also provided several mechanisms that the hospitals should adopt to overcome hazards that affect the staff and the patients. One of the things they advocate for is increasing the skills of healthcare givers, developing new workplace initiatives, and enhancing the access of workers and patients to essential intervention services.

Potential Barriers and Resistance to Change

There are many barriers to change that might be occasioned by the caregivers, the organization, or the patients. The obstacles that come from the caregivers can be classified as either psychological or sociological barrier. One psychological barrier is uncertainty. This happens when the staff feels that the proposed change is not clear or might in one way or another affect negatively their jobs. Sociological barriers include group norms and group conformity. People may reject change because their roles and relationships are affected. Moreover, some scholars argue that poor leadership is a primary cause of organizational barrier to change. It happens when the leadership in charge is unable to convince all the stakeholders the need for the modification and the staff rejects it as a result. Patients can also cause a barrier to change when there is defective or broken communication (Antwi & Kale, 2014). The hospital may not instigate any change that has not received approval from the patient. This can only be achieved through proper communication.

Strategies to Overcome Barriers and Resistance to Change

Overcoming barriers and resistance to change must be a prime initiative of the organization. Change is essential in addressing the problems that affect workplace performance, and speaking of hazards, change of strategies, environment, and infrastructure is inevitable. One way the management can overcome the resistance to change is by effectively engaging the employees (Yılmaz & Kılıçoğlu, 2013).  The staff must be part of the change, and therefore the leaders must ensure that they announce the proposed adjustments to the team and convince them to support the desired change. Implementing change is also not something that the management can achieve in one day. The organization should seek to make the change in phases. This plan will help minimize resistance from the employees who will keep adapting to the little changes. The hospital should also identify the opposition and ensure they overcome its attitudes (Yılmaz & Kılıçoğlu, 2013). The opposition can be a group of individuals or independent individuals who may urge others to reject the change. Identifying such people and calming them down will help implement the change with minimal opposition.

Plan to Implement Evidence-Based Interventions

The best plan based on evidence-based strategies should focus on the leadership of the organization and the things they need to do to foster change so that they can overcome workplace hazards (Chism, 2015).  The steps to take to achieve this are as follows. First, it is important to break down the tasks into units so as to allow identification of the needs of change. Smaller units are also manageable and easy to evaluate. The second step is to collect information for each unit regarding various hazards. For example, when dealing with the wards, one of the risks to patients and nurses is spread of infections. Both caregivers and patients stand a risk of infections and addressing that will provide solutions easily.  The third step is analyzing the hazards, weighing their impact and finally suggesting a strategy to address each one of them. The resources which might be useful include the economic resources for renovating faulty infrastructure which may cause the risks, computerized data storage, processing and analyzing of data, as well as use of security utilities such as CCTV cameras to help mitigate violence which is a potential hazard within the workplace

Other Health Care Professionals to Help Drive Change in the Organization

The hospital can use various professionals to foster changes in the nursing sector. One, it can use the consultants who will provide information about the needs of change and the strategies for approaching the change. Other useful professionals are those that work with various bodies such as the World Health Organization and OSHA who can also make contributions on the safety policies that the hospital should adopt.

References

Antwi, M., & Kale, M. (2014). Change Management in Healthcare. Kingston, ON: The Monieson Centre for Business Research in Healthcare, Queen’s University School of Business.

Brooker, C., & Waugh, A. (2013). Foundations of nursing practice: Fundamentals of holistic care. Edinburgh: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Chism, L. A. (2015). The doctor of nursing practice. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Yılmaz, D., & Kılıçoğlu, G. (2013). Resistance to change and ways of reducing resistance in educational organizations. European journal of research on education, 1(1), 14-21.

Capella University Driving Change Assessment Essay