Introduction
Complexity science is the study of complex adaptive systems (CASs) and the relationships that occur within them. CASs are a function of what has previously occurred, what is currently occurring, and are open to energy and information from the environment all around them (Chaffee & McNeill, 2007). The boundaries that define theses systems are fuzzy; each individual is their own CAS that is influenced by a multitude of other CASs, all of which may belong to increasingly larger CASs. The health care system is a CAS in and of itself that is made of a multitude of smaller CASs – hospitals, floors, units, and individuals. There are a many characteristics that help to make up and define what a CAS is. Understanding these
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While extremely beneficial, this tool can also become a hindrance when supplies are not restocked or are placed in the wrong location. Another important member of this floor is the charge nurse who acts as a liaison between patients, nurses, shifts, and hospital administrators. The charge nurse does not have a set of patients assigned to them specifically, but helps nurses to get caught up when they fall behind and acts in a generalized way to keep the floor functioning. The floor receptionist helps to direct patient calls to the appropriate personnel, but this person is only present at certain times during the day. Also visiting at any given time are physicians, chaplains, respiratory therapists, wound nurses, IV therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and a variety of other hospital personnel. With all of these individuals coming and going, this floor is constantly abuzz with movement as everyone works together to help the patients who populate this floor receive the health care they need.
CAS 1 - Simple Rules Applied Locally
Because of its status as a CAS, there are certain defining characteristics of this floor that when examined closely can help us to get a better picture of how it functions. Simple rules applied locally help to keep the CAS organized and moving appropriately. According to Plsek and Greenhalg (2001), simple rules are present in almost everything we do; they help us to
The charge nurse can continue to search for an available CNA that could possibly float to the unit. There are several hospitals that do cross training with the CNA’s just in case they are asked to float to another department. The charge nurse can help several ways by helping Brandi with the CAN tasks until help comes, she could care for a patient of Brandi’s, ask if one of the CNA’s could stay an extra hour or so to help with the tasks that need to be completed by 8am. Also, look over any morning tasks that could potentially be moved to a later time. She can possibly redo the assignments on the unit to even out the work load between the nurses until help arrives. We are all a team working together to provide the best care possible, so team
Everyone wants a sustainable well-functioning health system (Marshall, 2011 qdt Porter-O’Grady, 2016 et al p 325). When nursing and other healthcare managers (nurse leaders) focus on increasing connections, diversity, and interactions they increase information flow and promote creative adaptation referred to as self-organization. Complexity science builds on the rich tradition in nursing that views patients and nursing care from a systems perspective (Porter-O’Grady, 2016 et al p 324 and Holden
Every morning the charge nurse from the night shift does a huddle between 7:30am and 8am. All of the staff members participate in the huddle, including the ones coming and leaving. The charge nurse gives a report of the main points of what is going on in the unit, how many patients they have, who is going to be admitted, or transferred. Also, if any patient is on one to one care. The charge nurse mentioned the acuity of the patients. They give thanks to nurses and patient care technicians who did an excellent job. The manager gives a brief up date of how the day is going to be, and any news she has for the staff.
Due to the patient to nurse ratio on the floor, the floor RN would be more focused on the shift’s operations such as the administration of the medications, ensuring that the patient’s ADLs are taken care of, and collaborating with the inpatient care team when family had demands or questions. On the other hand, the APRN would look more closely on the bigger picture, the care provider would not only look into the patient’s daily needs but also the welfare of the family and the organization. The APRN may dig deeper into the signs and symptoms associated with the psychological or psychiatric aspects of the patient’s condition that can sometimes manifest as somatic or physical illness. For example, the patient might have been sleep deprived due to some emotional stress related to the upcoming court hearing. The APRN would explore on why the patient is having an issue with sleep deprivation, make the care plan, intervene appropriately, and then evaluate the outcome. The APRN could also refer the patient to a psychiatric or legal counseling and assist the patient and family members embrace wellness by establishing trusting care relationships, recognizing the clients’ needs but setting limitations, and reassuring them that the APRN would facilitate towards the resolution of their health care
Once the patients arrive to the unit, if the person belongs to either scheduled induction or C-Section, they are provided with a delivery room. If the patient does not belong to previously mentioned categories, and about to deliver, she is moved to a delivery room. One final category is, where patients come in because they feel that they are about to be in labor or the patients that experience various pregnancy related complications. These patients are monitored by the nurse, seen by the physician and put under observation. If any of those observation patients are about to go into labor, they will be moved to delivery room. The rest of the patients will be treated and discharged. A quick registration will be done for all patients as soon as they enter the unit. Additional documentation for triaged patients will be done after they are moved to triage. For patients in labor or C-Section, it will be done earliest of patient’s
Preadmission for example, in a nursing home is done by the manager, the patient’s GP or multidisciplinary hospital staff. It is the nurses or receptionist’s job to take the patient’s information and pass it on to the multidisciplinary team. Managers have the job of overviewing the situation. Discharges are granted by the doctor, social worker, occupational therapist or multidisciplinary team. The domestic assistant cleans the room before and after a patient, they also
Bedside reporting involves giving information or a report to the oncoming nurse in the presence of a patient. This method gives the patient an opportunity to ask questions and get clarification regarding his or her care. Bedside reporting increases patient satisfaction, quality of healthcare and nurse-to-nurse responsibility. Hospitals need to design a better handoff process that can easily reduce patient risks and increase patients’ involvement in their care. Emergency rooms shift reports usually take place at the nursing station of every patient care area. The departing nurse gives information verbally to the oncoming shift. Therefore,
Bedside reporting has the primary function of sharing patient information between nurses, as they change shifts. The nurse ending their shift would report all the changes that have occurred in the state of the patient and all measures which have been taken for the respective patient. This information would be transmitted to the nurse commencing her shift, who would then write and further transmit all patient information occurring during their shift, to the nurse coming to replace them.
On one of my clinical days at San Ramon Regional Medical Center, my classmates and I all had the opportunity to be a student charge on the Med-Surg unit. As I have observed from my work place as well as at our clinical sites, charge nurses are the ones in charge of dividing bed assignments, solving conflicting issues among the staff, helping or coordinating with admissions, and keeping nursing care adequately delivered to patients. Charge nurses also do a lot more including signing doctor’s orders, resource or advisor for others, answering phones and call lights, rounding with doctors, and dealing with family members. I always viewed the role of charge nurse to help other nurses and make their loads easier. As I continue to be exposed to what their role truly is, my views changes through time and experience.
Traditionally, nursing shift-to-shift reports were organized methods of communication between only the oncoming and leaving nurse, designated to a location such as the central nursing station or nook of a hallway. Shift reports can be considered the foundation of how the day is going to plan out because it introduces the patient, diagnoses, complications, medications, consults, upcoming test and the entire plan of care. These reports are full of complicated and vital information and while set in certain locations that are vulnerable to interruptions, such as the nursing station, medical errors and miscommunication are more likely to be made. The Joint Commission’s 2009 and 2010 National Patient Safety Goals (Joint Commission, 2015) included two patient safety standards, first to encourage patients to be involved in their health care plan and second, to implement a standardized communication process for handoff reports between providers. Soon after in 2013, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under the United States Department of Health and Human Services introduced a set of strategies to improve patient engagement along with safety and quality in patient care. Within these strategies the new method of nurse bedside shift report was developed, which suggests nurses to conduct shift-to-shift reports at bedside in the room of each patient, rather than out of the room. The benefits of this new method were
In the professional setting, knowing the patient through his or her diagnosis, name, history of present illness, laboratory results or reason for staying in the hospital only contributes to the manner of physical care of the patient. However, recognizing the patient 's spiritual needs such as emotional support, mental positivity, and intellectual understanding of his or her situation gives a better assessment, as well as a trusting relationship between the nurse and the patient, as per personal experience. In the ward, it is evident that most of the staff nurses spend their time doing documentations, preparing medications, following-up laboratory requests, as well as reading through the patients ' charts to affirm the physician 's order. Throughout the duration of our shifts as student nurses, I see that the most that the staff nurses get to be conversant with the patient is when certain procedures (such as feeding through nasogastric tube, taking
Complexity is part of the nature of many things in our existence especially those that matter the most. The health industry is a complex system most of all due to the presence of the human factor within it. This particular complexity means that every situation is truly unique based on the psychological characteristics of each protagonist, the context within which they are evolving and the communal rules, sometimes unspoken, that govern the stakeholders. As a result, even a clear cut resurgence of an issue or scenario may fail to resolve if a leader blindly applies a previous strategy without first considering the specific intricacies of the situation (Plsek, 2003).
It is no secret that communication is key when providing direct patient care in a skilled nursing facility. However, there is a noticeable lapse in the communication between the care team when providing care to the individual or groups of individuals. Two main parts of any care team are the registered nurse and the certified nursing assistant, as these are the two people whom have the most direct and impactful roles with residents in a skilled facility. The Registered Nurse and the Certified Nursing Assistant play similar roles in providing patient care, but have different roles in its entirety. The role of the Registered Nurse (RN) is defined as having the competency and skill to provide direct and indirect health care to individuals, their families, and communities around them. Services are also provided designed to give out medications, to promote comfort or healing, promote healing, and to also provide the dignity of their patients and patient’s families (American College of Rheumatology, 2015).
These past few months have been a painstaking, yet another fruitful semester of brain squeezing activities. It was a challenge having four class courses to finish, a full-time job to fulfill, and a family to care for. Hard work and perseverance, with the grace of God and with the support of the people around me made it bearable. Now that the semester is almost over, the valuable lessons it introduced not only in my mind, but in my heart, encouraged me to be more skillful in listening to the patients and families I interact with every day. Being more sensitive and responsive to their needs, help me move to a higher level of compassion and care. In a chaotic situation, wherein, without the understanding of complex adaptive system (CAS), I
FG, personal communication, March 1, 2015). The telemetry floor manager is responsible for all aspects of the unit’s operation and management. Mr. FG main job duty is to ensure the floor runs smoothly without any obstacles while providing the best possible patient care. Mr. FG currently has 78 employees (including charge nurses, staff educator, staff nurses, nurse aids, and secretaries) who report to him and he is directly responsible for. Mr. FG delegates some of the daily functions of the unit to the charge nurses, so that the unit runs smoothly while he focuses on other important his other duties. Mr. FG consider himself very professional and approach his staff member in a very professional manner and expects his staff maintaining the same professionalism with him and other team member. He also expect his staff to work as team and resolve any issue on the floor to the best of their ability in this manner. Even though his position as a manager on the floor to lead the team, but whenever there is a problem, he would like his every single member of his staff to be onboard to come up with a solution. Encourages everyone to talk to him whenever they feel the need and known for maintain an open door policy (Mr. FG, personal communication, March 1, 2015). Mr. FG reports directly to Chief Nursing Officer and the vice president of patient care services.