Assignment Executive Summary
Introduction
Delivery of quality services is a priority in healthcare as excellence determines patient outcomes. Various factors affect quality service delivery in health facilities. Healthcare facilities employ the most competent healthcare professionals yet patients continue to receive poor quality services. The hospital setting is dynamic as different personnel are responsible for the patient’s well being. Proper communication structures between health professionals reduce chances of information misinterpretation or conveyance of erroneous information. Both medical and non-medical factors affect the quality of service.
According to Hughes (2008), delivery of poor services occurs because of errors within the healthcare system. For instance, nurses with different experience levels may have different treatment approaches to the same clinical condition. However, if there are good communication structures, less experienced nurses can perform duties at the same level of expertise with the skilled nurses.
In the hospital setting, nurses are under a lot of pressure as there may be many patients waiting to receive treatment. In such cases, nurses have no time to refer to books, in most cases; they utilize the knowledge they already have. To improve patient outcomes, health facilities need to empower nurses with more information. For this reason, it is up to the health facility to take the initiative to conduct regular training to update all nurses on new policies, evidence-based procedures, and new equipment. Such communication allows all nurses to make informed decisions, which favour the client and quality service provision. This paper outlines the role of communication in healthcare quality improvement and proposes an approach to effective communication to the health facility’s board to advance quality healthcare.
Employee training is among the wisest investments a health facility can make. In this regard, when a hospital is equipped with health professionals practicing current evidence-based procedures, patient outcomes and quality service provision significantly improve. Subsequently, improved patient outcomes lead to patient satisfaction and referrals.
Employee training improves communication between health professionals because it places all nurses at the same level. According to Congress (2010), employee training improves communication as it provides a better understanding of the employer’s expectation (p. 894). It also advances communication by providing an opportunity for nurses to learn from the instructor and also from each other.
In his book, Hopkins (2016) explains that training increases the value of employees thereby increasing their loyalty (p. 37). When employees have the necessary skills, they are able to perform their tasks according to the required standard and therefore experience job satisfaction. For this reason, employee training reduces the turnover rate and the employer reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees as a result.
Program’s Objective
The aim of the program is to improve quality service delivery in the health facility by conducting continuous training.
Methodology
Although the hospital already has an established employee education department, its resources are under-utilized as the employees are only trained once in a while. Also, the department conducts general training without focussing on the needs of specific departments.
The training is insufficient because healthcare encompasses different disciplines. With continuous research and new discoveries, knowledge changes every day. Therefore, general training does not meet the specific knowledge requirements of different departments. For instance, nurses working in the orthopaedic department should receive separate training from nurses working in the ENT to address their specific needs. However, common courses such as communication and leadership can be taken by nurses across the board.
In this regard, the employee education department will develop quality- assessment questionnaires and distribute them to the nurses. The nurse’s responses will be used to gauge the effectiveness of previous training programs and provide more improvement suggestions.
The employee education department will develop a training schedule for each department then hire specialized instructors for regular training. Each department will spare an hour per week to train the nurses during their off-duty hours to avoid shortage. The nurses will then be responsible for training the student nurses and other support personnel.
After receiving training, the nurse leaders in each department will develop policies to help the employees adopt new practices. Additionally, they will pin posters on walls to remind them of the new practices. Another effective approach to implementing new practices is involving he patients. For instance, nurse leaders can ask patients to remind nurses to wash their hands after caring for each patient.
Budget Justification
The cost of the program will depend on the amount of resources allocated. The training will occur in the hospital’s conference facility which is fully equipped with all learning material. Besides, the hospital will hire specialized nurse educators for all the eight departments: surgery, emergency, maternity, orthopaedic/physiotherapy, neonatal, oncology, dental and ENT. Since the cost of a nurse educator is 60 USD per hour, the total cost for two months training will be 3840 USD. This is a relatively small amount to pay considering the numerous benefits.
Other resources include time. The nurses will spare an hour of their free-time every week for training and extra hours to do their own research as they will sit for an examination at the end of the training season and receive certificates. The hospital will pay the examination fees of 25 USD for all 200 nurses working at the facility. The total examination fee is 5000 USD.
Evaluation
Evaluation is a vital stage in the development of every project, program or policy. It is a continuous process that helps to identify the viability of a proposal, and program implementation pitfalls among other risks. It can be done before, during and after program implementation. Although the program can be evaluated based on different criteria, the most important is its ability to improve patient outcomes. Before starting the evaluation process it is important to document the courses covered in the training program to avoid assessing the nurses on areas they have not been trained.
The hospital can issue questionnaires to long-term patients receiving healthcare before and after the program’s implementation. Such questionnaires prompt patients to state whether and how they have experienced a change in quality. Also, an analysis of the hospital records can show whether there is a reduction in medication errors. This can be done by analysing the records to identify instances of misuse or overuse of resources such as lab tests and medication. Medical records can also be analysed to show improvement in the application of evidence-based procedures.
The evaluation process is also critical in testing the effectiveness with which new knowledge is applied to practice by the development of new policies and standard operating procedures. The employee education department should liaise with department heads to guide the nurses in applying new information. According to South (2011), good communication between health professionals facilitates the application of research findings to practice (par. 1).
References
Congress. (2010). Congressional Record, V. 152, Pt. 9, June 16, 2006 to June 27 2006. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office
Hopkins, B. (2011). Cultural differences and improving performance: how values and beliefs influence organizational performance. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 25(4). Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=bEUGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT53&dq=employee+training+increases+loyalty&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=employee%20training%20increases%20loyalty&f=false
Hughes, R. (Ed.). (2008). Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (Vol. 3). Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2682/
South, A. (2011). Designing and implementing a communications strategy: lessons learnt from HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Programme Consortia. Health Research Policy and Systems, 9(Suppl 1), S15. http://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4505-9-S1-S15
