Managing Change In Healthcare

Strong leadership is important for the future of nursing. With all the changes being made today, nurses need to step up and advocate for their profession and working conditions. According to the IOM (2010), nurses should “act as full partners with physicians and other health professionals in redesign and reform efforts across the health care system”. Just as the leaders before us, such as Florence Nightingale, Jean Watson and Betty Neuman, made great contributions to the change in the nursing profession, we need those leaders today to continue making contributions to improve our practice.

Nurse leaders are faced with issues or problems on a daily basis that are often expected and sometimes unexpected. It “comes with the territory” so to speak. If there were no issues to solve or hurdles to overcome the necessity of designating a leader would not seem quite as important. Nurse leaders can tackle issues that occur in their work environment using nursing theory to guide them. Nursing theory provides a framework that nurse leaders can use to implement interventions or changes to positively impact the staff they lead. This framework of the theory will set the standards for achieving the desired outcomes and is based on knowledge that is gleaned from practice and/or research.

for buy-in, enabling action, creating short-term wins, don’t let up, and making it stick). Bridges

When one thinks of leaders, they think of those who hold a high profile position or someone who is highly visible in the public eye. A leader, regardless of prestige is someone who can easily influence and inspire the actions and goals of others. The definition of a leader in Nursing Leadership and Management in Nursing states, “leadership is commonly defined as a process of influence in which the leader influences others towards goal achievement (Kelly, 2012 p.2). Leaders are needed at all levels and nurses take a leadership role by being advocates for their patients. There are many leadership theories and styles in nursing but this paper will focus on transformational leadership and its application to nursing. Transformational leadership is important in nursing, due to its ever changing and ever evolving healthcare methods and technology.

Florence Nightingale was a leader and change agent. Unfortunately, many nurses have now become followers instead of leaders. The IOM has called for nurses to lead the change to remove barriers to the scope of practice for nurses. This will provide more opportunities for access to high quality healthcare. As a change agent for nursing education, you have been asked to participate in an interdisciplinary group to investigate the barriers and to propose how industry and academia can work together to better address needs of a changing health care industry. This may include new roles for nurses, new leadership needs, and entrepreneurial opportunities. Discuss with your peers what points you will address with the interdisciplinary group. Support your work with current research.

Organizational transition can be viewed on a broad scale. This type of transition occurs around us in a social, political or economical setting. This can include changes in procedures and practices (Schumacher & Meleis, 1994, p.121). A true leader can adapt to change and convince others to do so as well. In a medical setting, change is always occurring. There is constant research and discoveries being made to help improve the quality of life. An organization must be aware of new findings and implement the necessary policies that will put the patient’s best interests first. Again, we can compare organizational transition to the program outcomes. A nurse must be able to use informatics and interdisciplinary collaboration. A nurse must be able to use the necessary resources to advance his or her knowledge and communicate well with others to improve oneself. These are the qualities of an effective leader. The purpose of obtaining these qualities is to reach a common goal; provide the best care for the patient.

What I discovered and know from my research about change management is that “Change can be described as the approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations to a desired future (Kotter, 2009). Change management also speeds the process of delivering desired behavior change, to achieve anticipated results. The evolving nature of healthcare also has its attendant impacts on the health system. However, bringing about a change in a hospital to a set standard, according to McCarthy & Eastman (2011) involves multiple steps. Some of the steps discussed below will give an insight into the change management process.

Current nursing in a state of constant change and nurses burnout rates reaching crisis levels, organizations need responsive and skilled leaders at the helm.The only way to navigate through these difficult times is with excellent leadership at all levels of each organization.

With the innovation in technology in the health care system, electronic documentation is here to stay and nurses need to adapt to these new technologies. In addition, to help nurses adapt to the changes from paper documentation to computerized documentation, you could incorporated Lewin’s change theory into your training process. According to Mitchell (2013), change theory is the investigation of progress in people or authoritative society. Understanding change theory gives a structure to successfully arranging and actualizing change inside associations. Case in point, the structure and capacity of a health care delivery system are fundamentally impact by its health care data structure. Moreover, Mitchell stated that the way to deal with dealing

Health care and indeed nursing is dynamic. This reality should a reminder of how flexible we should be when change knocks our door. There are two types of change; First-order change, that occur within a stable system and makes minimal but incremental alteration on the current system; Second-order change is drastic and disjointed and calls for a transformation for finds most people unaware or not ready to move to a new system. “Workers need to be open and responsive to change and become ‘long life learners’’ (Huber, 2014 p. 39). One of the challenges is for the leader and manager to influence as where needed coerce the followers to adopt new processes.

The presence of change is inevitable. Healthcare organizations are challenged by changes every single day. Unlike, any other organization, the healthcare system exists to serve and care for human beings during some of the most challenging times of their lives. Nurses are challenged by changes every minute, of every day. Nurses are educated and trained to possess such an understanding of medical conditions and their impact on the human being, taught to expect the unexpected, and assume the worst. Nurses plan for the worst. Nurses possess the unique ability to make order out of chaos. Despite the ever-changing environment in which they practice, nurses find a

Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, emphasizes that strong nursing leadership is necessary to improve patient safety outcomes and that the nursing profession must enhance its leadership role in health care redesign” (Fardellone, Musil, Smith, & Click, 2014, p. 506). As described by the Institute of Medicine, leaders in nursing have a vital role throughout the health care system (Fardellone et al., 2014). In the health care system there are many different types of nursing leaders, many of which handle situations differently. This paper will reveal how to deal with a disliked change as a leader, how to transition into a leadership role, and

In the healthcare field, nursing leaders and managers face consistent issues in their respective practices that force them to alter the way they work and the way they think. In taking on a role as a leader within the field, nursing leaders and managers also take on the role of ensuring that work within an organization runs smoothly regardless of new issues that may arise in the healthcare arena. For instance, in today's healthcare environment, the issues of nurse shortage and nurse turnover have the capacity to alter the healthcare field and many of its respective branches and organizations should these problems not be managed properly by the leaders in the field. In viewing the issue at hand and in discovering how nursing leaders and managers are expected to act, and do act, in order to approach this issues, along with pinpointing the best approach possible to aid this issue, one can better understand which leadership styles are necessary for leaders to function.

Nursing is a very complex career that at many times requires one to be a leader. Nurses can be leaders in formal roles and also on the unit during any given shift. Nursing is a career that truly tests the character and attributes of those who choose to enter this career. Leadership in nursing is vital in creating a successful environment for patients. According to Stichler (2006), “effective leadership is essential to transforming organizations into environments that are safe for both patients and staff” (p. 422). Therefore, it is vital that as new nurses start out his or her careers that they learn from great leaders who are already in the profession. There are several great leaders working in the field who have a plethora of

By empowering the community of nurses and sustaining employee engagement, patient and employee satisfaction would remain the same, if not increase (6 Leadership strategies for navigating perpetual change in healthcare, 2015). Change is tough for most people and the time to adjust varies with each individual. Taking some time to acknowledge each individual and their needs is an important factor to being a great leader (6 Leadership strategies for navigating perpetual change in healthcare, 2015).