Designing my own Healthcare Organization

Designing my own Healthcare Organization
Type of Organization
Rural people face numerous health challenges compared to their urban counterparts, majorly lack of adequate health facilities. These individuals are likely to die from lack of enough attention to their healthcare needs including lack of specialized healthcare. A recent report from the CDC indicates that rural Americans are likely to die from conditions like heart disease, cancer, respiratory tract infections, and unintentional injury compared to those in the urban areas. These challenges highlight the need to have resources that are directed towards improving the health of rural communities. Rural health clinics (RHC) are locally located healthcare facilities that provide care to patients in underserved areas. RHCs are beneficial because they provide access to primary care that could otherwise be limited to the local people. The RHCs also provide basic emergency care to rural people while utilizing mid-level providers to combat healthcare worker shortages.

The type of organization I am developing is a rural health clinic serving to provide basic healthcare services to the population served. The name of the organization is Calif Health Clinic (CHC) and it will serve patients from California. The mission of the institution is to optimize patient experience through the provision of evidence-based healthcare services. Through the creation of trustworthy relationships, the organization will serve to provide quality healthcare that is compassionate, personalized, and innovative. Additionally, the healthcare organization will fully commit its healthcare task force to deliver uncompromising health care to the population served. The vision of CHC is to take care of patients by delivering the best patient experience so that each individual can leave the facility with a sense of satisfaction and well-being. While striving to reach the set standards, the long-term goal of the facility is to improve the health and quality of life of the residents.

The core values of the organization include:

Equity and equality
Security and safety
Teamwork
Accountability
Innovation
Customer engagement

Equity and Equality: Equity and equality are the results that we serve to achieve in CHC. To ensure optimum health care delivery, treating each individual without difference will be key. Each individual will be attended to without counting their measurable attributes while ensuring fairness and equality in their outcomes. Populations will be served equally regardless of their age, gender, sex, race, ethnicity, or social, economic, religious, and political backgrounds.

Security and Safety: Patient safety and security are fundamental to delivering quality services in healthcare today. There is a clear consensus that services to patients should be safe, effective, and patient-centered. Calif Health Clinic will strive to provide safe and secure healthcare through the employment of qualified staff, provision of timely services including referral of patients when necessary. Additionally, safety will be promoted through implementing clear policies, capacity building, quality improvement, and effective use of technology.

Teamwork: Today’s healthcare workforce is made up of several teams working together to provide quality care to patients. Calif Health Clinic will serve to provide patient care that is based on the values of teamwork and team spirit. Through effective communication and collaborative practice, the institution will address patient concerns based on each individual’s skills, knowledge, and expertise. Other strategies to improve patient experience through teamwork will include education, training, and effective leadership.

Accountability: Accountability in healthcare is all about ownership and clarity. Calif Health Clinic will strive to make things better and do things in a way that will foster the goals of the organization. All healthcare members will be accountable and answerable to their actions and the goal will be to measure the organizational performance against the highest standards of integrity and responsibility.

Innovation: In healthcare, innovation involves yielding scalable solutions to systems, products, technologies, or policies guiding service delivery. As the healthcare industry moves towards the delivery of technology-based care, Calif Health Clinic will utilize the opportunity to integrate health information technology into patient care. Patients will be served in the most innovative way possible while respecting the patient’s values and norms.

Customer Engagement: Calif Health Clinic aims at improving patient outcomes through customer engagement. Healthcare service delivery today is patient-centered whereby the needs and desires of the patients are the driving force behind healthcare decisions and quality measurements. Collaborative care and shared decision making will be used to engage customers to promote satisfaction. Most importantly, the care will focus on both physical and emotional well-being with respect to the culture and values of the served population.

Organizational Chart (Table inserts here)

Description of the Nurse Manager

Healthcare systems worldwide are facing different challenges in providing high-quality and cost-effective care. Effective nursing leadership and management are required to give direction in attaining top-quality care across healthcare systems. Leadership and management in nursing are two different concepts in nursing that describe the roles of nursing professionals who direct nursing staff and oversee processes during patient care delivery. For instance, nurse managers are responsible for supervising staff, oversee patient care, make work schedules, coordinate meetings, and create a safe working environment for patients and healthcare providers. On the other hand, nurse leaders are charged with making key decisions to guide healthcare service delivery. These individuals navigate the complex and ever-changing healthcare system to make decisions and solve problems related to aspects of quality and cost. At Calif Health Clinic, I intend to assume the leadership role so that I can be able to take part in making decisions that could promote quality care, patient safety, and cost-effective service delivery.

Characteristics of the Nurse Leader

Large-scale changes in the healthcare system alongside other perceived challenges highlight the need for strong leadership. I believe a good nurse leader is a lifelong learner who thinks critically and is open to new ideas. To be able to make the expected impact in CHC, the leader must be knowledgeable, maintain professional growth, and be highly competent (Anonson et al., 2014). The healthcare system today has incorporated the use of technology alongside other advancements which require the nurse leader to be vigilant. I will demonstrate confidence in the performance of tasks and ensure other healthcare providers practice competently. As a lifelong learner, I will be open to new ideas and work to advance my skills through education and training.

Nurse leaders are goal-oriented people working tirelessly to motivate employees towards realizing the organizational goal. The leader ought to communicate well, listen carefully and guide staff towards achieving quality. To ensure effective leadership, the nurse leader must understand the strengths and weaknesses of staff and work to motivate them daily (Anonson et al., 2014). I will ensure my staff is motivated through the creation of a safe working environment and using the shared governance approach. Through the utilization of evidence-based practices, I will ensure the organization performs well in aspects of quality care to attain the overall goal of optimum population health. While working to motivate employees, I believe recognizing personal strengths and weaknesses and working to improve them will ensure the realization of the organizational goals.

Self-awareness is a basic building block of nursing leadership which involves reading one’s feelings and knowing how they affect others. The nurse leader must be aware of his ego and ego-driven intentions to relate well with people. Self-awareness involves aspects such as anger management and the consequences of eliciting a certain response (Anonson et al., 2014). A nurse leader works with different individuals in the healthcare setting that possess different personalities making self-awareness an important tool in creating positive relationships. As a leader in CHC, I will ensure to check on my self-awareness through meditation, keeping journals, and seeking guidance when necessary.

Successful nurse leaders are committed, motivated, and focused on realizing the organizational vision, mission, and goals. To achieve these outcomes, the nurse leader encourages teamwork and leads by example. An effective nurse leader must develop collaborative practice approaches in routine patient care. Collaborative practice is important because it ensures every clinical team gets to take part in improving patient outcomes (Anonson et al., 2014). Additionally, commitment towards realizing the organizational goals means proper management of conflict in the institution. The nurse leader must be honest when managing conflict and use approaches that foster positive relationships rather than those that divide healthcare teams.

To successfully capitalize on healthcare opportunities, nurse leaders must advocate on behalf of colleagues and the profession. As the largest member of the healthcare team, nurse leaders must stay vigilant in representing their people and advocating for healthcare policies that can improve healthcare service delivery. Apart from political advocacy, the nurse leader must ensure patients receive the best care possible from healthcare teams. Strategies such as holding meetings and auditing will serve to ensure quality is maintained in healthcare. I will challenge poor practices and assist patients to access appropriate healthcare services while engaging them in decision making.

Developing Leadership Qualities

Current evidence indicates that various factors contribute to effective nursing leadership development. Factors such as education, experience, and dedication all contribute to the development of good nursing leadership skills. Life-long learning is one approach that can be used to develop my leadership qualities. There is adequate evidence demonstrating that advancing in education helps build good leaders. Nursing education develops leaders by focusing on concepts and theories that guide patient care and decision making.

The second approach to improve my leadership is through focusing on excellence. I will ensure to set my goals right and periodically review them to keep track of organizational success. The American Nurses Association advises nurse leaders to make difference through advocacy and involving patients in their care. For instance, there is a strong recommendation by ANA to obtain staff’s insight and involve them in strategic planning. These strategies will duly ensure that excellence is achieved in the organization.

Mentorship and coaching are valuable and effective strategies to build upon one’s leadership capacity. Career coaching provides an opportunity to enhance leadership skills because it helps reduce discouragement. Coaching also allows leaders to reflect on their activities and make necessary changes. Mentorship, on the other hand, allows the leader to learn from experts and copy behavior that can translate to good leadership. I intend to use these approaches to build upon my leadership skills especially on matters related to problem-solving in healthcare.

Strategies to Empower Staff

Empowering employees is important for organizational growth because it allows the team members to take action and make decisions. As a nurse leader in CHC, the first approach to empowering employees is through delegation. Delegation of duties to staff means allowing them to perform tasks as they wish (Bogue & Joseph, 2019). While practicing delegation, I believe it should be done with an intent to grow and develop capabilities rather than avoiding one’s duties. Delegation of duties is a sign that the nurse leader trusts staff to do the right thing when given an opportunity.

The second approach to empower staff is through shared decision making. Employees need to feel that they are part of the healthcare team contributing to the achievement of quality through policy formulation. In institutions where shared decision making is not practiced, poor patient outcomes and high staff turnover is observed (Bogue & Joseph, 2019). As a leader in CHC, I will practice shared decision making by calling meetings when matters of policy-making arise or during quality improvement. Appointing staff to lead in these meetings and consulting before decision making will ensure they are part of the healthcare team. In addition to shared decision making the nurse leader should accept new ideas and input of staff even if they might not contribute to the final decision.

Provision of information and timely feedback can serve to empower employees. Staff needs to be complimented and congratulated when they perform well to encourage the practice. During quality improvement activities, the leader should provide timely feedback on areas that were well performed and also those that require improvement. These approaches are dependent on the establishment of clear communication channels that improve the dissemination of information across the unit. Additionally, the type of leadership style used can promote empowerment through information sharing (Bogue & Joseph, 2019). For example, autocratic leadership can only serve to diminish effective communication which will hinder information sharing in the facility.

Recognition and rewarding can be a good strategy to empower healthcare staff. The rewarding system serves to show appreciation of the better work done by employees while encouraging others to follow the same practice. Periodical rewards for top performers are crucial to encouraging staff to work hard. It is also important in healthcare today because it encourages innovative practices that could transform healthcare service delivery. The rewarding system creates a force behind healthcare delivery by staff which translates to hard work, focus, and positive patient outcomes.

The process of empowering employees requires the availability of resources. I believe one of the best strategies to empower staff is to provide necessary resources and a positive working environment. Nurse leaders are in a position to provide employees with the resources they need to achieve quality and improve organizational performance. The leader should be ready to solve the problems of staff and provide financial support alongside other resources (Bogue & Joseph, 2019). As a leader in CHC, I will work to ensure staff has the required resources to take care of patients. I will also promote a positive working environment by encouraging collaborative practices and teamwork.

Identification of Healthcare Team

Healthcare is a team effort. The healthcare task force is made up of different groups including nurses, doctors, technicians, pharmacists, community health workers, and technologists alongside other groups. One of the teams I will work with in CHC will be the information technology team.

Rationale: Since the publishing of the Institute of Medicine Report (IOM), there has been rapid development and adoption of health information technology (HIT) systems worldwide. Health information technology involves the processing of information using computer hardware and software including aspects of recording, storing, and retrieving health information (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). The use of HIT presents numerous opportunities to transform healthcare including reducing human errors, improving clinical outcomes, and facilitating care coordination. The information technology team will be central in ensuring the adoption and use of health information technology in CHC. I intend to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system in the facility to guide the documentation of patient data. The information technology team will be crucial in ensuring the safe installation of the technology and routine monitoring of data including data security issues.

Effective Team Functioning

Tracking team performance constantly is a managerial rather than a leadership role which ensures members adhere to their defined roles. The first approach I will use to ensure the effective functioning of the IT team is through the use of key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are important tools used to detect if individuals or healthcare teams are practicing according to their set standards. For example, the KPIs for the IT team will include the availability of web services in the facility, compatibility of computer systems, and effective security of patient data. The KPIs will indicate if the selected team is competent enough to run the chosen information system in the facility.

The second approach to ensure the effective functioning of the IT team is through periodic reviews and comparison of results during benchmarks. The head of the IT team will present monthly reports about the team’s performance for analysis. Annual benchmarks will compare the organization’s technological approach to those from similar institutions. The results will help in gauging the effectiveness of the team in implementing and sustaining HIT systems in the facility.

Handling Healthcare Issues

The healthcare environment is composed of people from different backgrounds making conflicts common in the workplace. Interpersonal conflicts are the most common in nursing and they involve conflict between doctors and nurses, patients and nurses, and even between nurses (Angelo, 2019). Based on the presented scenario, I will resolve the conflict using the following steps:

Step 1: The first step will involve clarification of the disagreement to ensure both nurses get to understand the issue at hand. I will ensure to obtain detailed information from the nurses on why the ordering of supplies is a challenge.

Step 2: The second step will involve establishing a common goal which will be an effective ordering of supplies in the unit. I will engage each nurse to identify the perceived method of ordering supplies for each party and why they think it is the best.

Step 3: Upon collection of the ideas from the nurses, I will discuss with them different ways to solve the issue. Through communication, brainstorming, and the use of critical thinking, I will work to ensure all possible options are exhausted (Angelo, 2019).

Step 4: The fourth step will involve determining barriers to the achievement of the common goal. During this discussion, I will explain what can and cannot be changed about the situation while providing ways of getting around the identified roadblocks.

Step 5: This step will involve discussion of the best way to resolve the identified difference. I will help the conflicting parties choose the best solution for dealing with the problem of ordering supplies in the unit. Additionally, I will discuss the responsibility of each team towards achieving the set goal.

References

Alotaibi, Y. K., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi Medical Journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

Angelo, E. (2019). Managing interpersonal conflict: Steps for success. Nursing Management, 50(6), 22. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000558479.54449.ed

Anonson, J., Walker, M. E., Arries, E., Maposa, S., Telford, P., & Berry, L. (2014). Qualities of exemplary nurse leaders: Perspectives of frontline nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(1), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12092

Bogue, R. J., & Joseph, M. L. (2019). C-suite strategies for nurse empowerment and executive accountability. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(5), 266-272. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000749

OTHERS:

Related Posts: