Introduction
Most of the health organizations have put in place mechanisms such as STOP AND WATCH, bedside hand-off and rounding which are geared towards improving the quality of services to ensure patients are safe while receiving treatment. Additionally, these methods are designed to make sure patients are satisfied with the services rendered to them since their needs are incorporated into care plans. However, it is unfortunate that most of these measures are only contained in the paperwork or service blueprint of a health care facility. There are no efforts which have been deployed to ensure these policies are implemented fully and all the staffs adhered to their mandate. On the other hand, where these policies have been implemented and are part of the daily operations, practitioners only do them for formality reasons since they are required by the regulations of the facility to incorporate them in the care plans designed for patients. As such, they have become a routine for the practitioners and hence no impact on patients’ outcomes. Therefore, as a nurse leader, it’s my responsibility help the health facility where I practice achieves its objectives. As such, it is imperative to create a healthy work environment that encourages employees to contribute immensely to the policy making and execution of STOP AND WATCH, bedside hand-off and rounding to improve on patients’ conditions.
Thesis statement; it is vital for the nurse manager to motivate practitioners to take the personal initiative of implementing health policies, value their contribution to the facility and develop the urge to give patients utmost care that’s geared towards improving the well-being of patients and enhance their satisfaction, in addition, the staff needs to feel they are part of the organization and their efforts are appreciated by the management.
Body
Leadership theory
Transformational leadership theory provides important guidelines on a how a leader can lead an organization to achieve its vision and motivate collective responsibility in an organization (Clavelle et al., 2012). As such, this is a significant leadership style for a nurse manager since it provides direction on how to improve performance, change the attitude of staffs towards their mandate and motivate them to improve their performance (Huber, 2014). My leadership goal is to ensure staff work as a team, there is no discrimination, encourage collaboration and collective decision making and patients are satisfied with the care given.
The STOP AND WATCH
This is an important tool which can be utilized by the nurses and interdisciplinary teams to assess the conditions of the patients based on the symptoms which are depicted by the patient. As such, it provides symptoms alert to nurses on sudden or observed change of condition (Ouslander et al., 2014). However, this tool has not been utilized fully due to the complacency of interdisciplinary team members. It is critical for management to find reasons, grievances, and complaints from practitioners as to why they are not interested in implementing this measure. Thus, to address the issue promptly, it is important that a nurse leader be approachable and has appropriate interpersonal relationship skills which will be instrumental in communicating with the employees who have problems with regard to STOP AND WATCH (Ouslander et al., 2014). On the other hand, as a leader, it is critical to pass an important message to stakeholders in a language that can be understood and appreciated.
Change of shift hand-off to bedside hand-off
Bedside hand-off has proved to be effective in the management of patients’ records and increase their satisfaction since nurses are up-to-date with patients’ data (Maxson, Derby, Wrobleski & Foss, 2012). However, the chances of not updating patients’ information or asking patients vital questions concerning their well-being are high for patients whose reports have no progress or changes over a couple of days. Thus, the management need encourage practitioners to collaborate when it comes to Bedside hand-off and make decisions which have the best interest of the patient. This can be achieved by improving communications and collaboration across the facility (Riesenberg, Leitzsch and Cunningham, 2010). Additionally, nurses have to make joint decisions on what kind of information to include in reports after assessing patients condition during Bedside hand-off exercise.
Rounding
Every hour rounding prevents patients falls, reduction of call light, increased patient satisfaction, reduces staff complains and empower staff through shared governance (Reimer and Herbener, 2014). Additionally, purposeful rounding is instrumental in improving patients’ trust, confidence and satisfaction (Forde-Johnston, 2014). However, at times, it is common to find staffs have missed the objective of rounding and patients needs have not been adequately addressed. Thus, it is vital that management sensitizes the importance of this excise, educate and reward practitioners and subordinates who have done exemplary performances during rounding. A sign of appreciation and recognition will be critical in motivating the workers to commit to their work since it will show that their efforts are being recognized by not only the patients but also the management.
Conclusion
Notably, health workers have become complacent in the implementation of STOP AND WATCH, bedside hand-off and rounding since these policies are considered as routine operations. This has contributed to adverse patients’ outcomes. Thus, health practitioners need to be motivated to recognize the significance of their contribution to the well-being of the patients and identify the role they can play to help a health facility achieve its purpose.
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