Nurses play
Introduction
Nurses play an essential role in the medical facilities by providing maintenance services to the patients and executing leadership functions in healthcare organizations. Although the nursing profession has positive impacts on an individual’s lives as it deals with human life, some challenges need a nurse to be committed and dedicated to their care provision in hospitals. Nurses require to concentrate on the needs of the management objectives and patients. Hence, they must be equipped with technical skills and managerial techniques to help them cope with every situational change. The successful outcomes for patients in most healthcare firms result from nurses’ professional techniques and training skills. Despite developments in technology and infrastructure in hospitals, there are problems from the working environment that affect nurses either indirectly or semi-direct, resulting in low-quality care services and poor patient outcomes. This paper examines shortages of nursing professionals, nursing change theory, the plan for implementing the change, criteria to evaluate the plan’s effectiveness, and reflection on how the change affects nursing professions.
The shortage of nursing experts has significant negative consequences on medical organizations’ quality of services and patients’ recovery. There is a low representation of ethnic minorities in every health profession. With the increasing population, the need for health professionals is becoming the main problem facing medical firms. The growing number of aging individuals who require more medical attention leads to patients increase in hospitals. The rising demand for healthcare increases, forcing one nurse to serve many patients, affecting nurses’ performance, state of mind, quality, and self-organization. Patients are likely not to receive the needed healthcare service when they get the care from a nurse servicing many patients compared to a nurse who has fewer clients to attend to (Chhugani & James, 2017). Nursing leaders are the people needed in leading the required changes in the medical facilities of nursing shortages.
The force field model by Kurt Lewin is the recommended theory in managing the problem of nursing shortages. The Lewin theory is in three steps; unfreezing, change, and refreezing. Lippitt, Watson, and Wesley extended Lewin’s theory to seven steps that concentrate on an agent’s change (Spear, 2016). The theory of Lippitt’s application is worldwide as healthcare organizations use planning, implementing, and sustaining change. The model is divided into four corresponding nursing processes: assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating. The benefit of the Lippitts theory is that each communication phase remains essential.
The first process is assessing the willingness of actions and the ability for the change. The contributing factors must be more than the restraining forces to facilitate the change’s implementation and sustaining (Willcox et al. 2018). There is a need to involve the individuals and management to be affected by the change planned through efficient communication to identify their problems, give them responsibility, and provision the change justification. The framework of force field evaluation use in the planning of the change and solving problems. The strategies of force-field analysis help reduce resistance by changing by communicating effectively, explaining why the nursing staff increase will promote job satisfaction and fatigue reduction.
The second factor to include in my change plan is assessing the change agent’s motivation and resources. This stage evaluates the motivation of the change agent, the attribution of staff, and cost. Group discussion and repeated meetings among professional members help evaluate any challenge they are facing and how it can be addressed. There is a need for financial commitment in promoting the facilitation of change in a medical organization. The cost estimation for planned change is done by the nurse leader, who forwards it to the healthcare facility’s management. The final stage in planning is selecting change objectives that are progressive by Lippt’s theory of change. The final draft development to clearly define the change process by considering the evaluation of motivation and ability to change and the assessment of
motivation and resource of change agents.
The proposal’s effectiveness can be evaluated by selecting appropriate functions for the agent of change. Nurse leaders play a fundamental role in managing and supporting change. Role definition assists in ensuring everyone’s involvement in change, hence avoiding conflict of interest. The use of efficient communication and interpersonal techniques helps maintain the proposed change until it becomes an organizational culture. The evaluation of the change will be based on a nurse to patient ratio, more nursing staff, an increase of training centers for nursing, and a reduction of nurse vacancy. Patients feedback also is applied in evaluation. Change Evaluation and Stick Team ensures that the nursing task’s sufficient staff is permanently a medical healthcare facility philosophy. Implementing the planned change will help deal with many challenges connected to the nurses’ shortage in medical centers.
Conclusion
In summary, the nursing staff shortage is a current indirect nursing situation that requires a change in healthcare facilities. There is application Lippitt’s theory of change in facilitating the change of nursing shortages in medical facilities. Lippitt’s model provides guidelines in planning for the planned change to assist in its implementation. There are criteria used to evaluate the plan’s effectiveness, such as the patient’s feedback, as shown above.