Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Assignment Paper

To Prepare:

Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.

The Assignment (4-5 pages):
Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following:
Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.  Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Assignment Paper

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The national healthcare issue/stressor and its impact on the organization

The selected healthcare issue involves inadequate training and development opportunities for nurses in the country. Most nurses in the country lack the required skills, thus limiting their service delivery, quality of services offered to the patients, and patient outcomes (Sklar, Hemmer & Durning, 2018).

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Inadequate training and development opportunities have affected my organization. First, the healthcare facility has been headed by AD nurse managers for several years. These nurse managers lack the required skill and knowledge due to limited training and development opportunities. These managers were unable to evaluate nurses and coordinate staff during care delivery, which, in turn, results in the delivery of poor quality services and patient outcomes. Consequently, baccalaureate and higher prepared nurses were not satisfied with the leadership of AD nurse managers. As a result, they raised concerns and complaints about being supervised and evaluated by less educated incompetent managers. The nurses were also concerned about the lack of EB changes for improving the quality of healthcare services and patient outcomes.

Additionally, inadequate training and development opportunities limited the performance capability of nurses with master’s degrees. These nurses served as staff nurses in the facility due to the lack of training programs where they could polish their skills to meet the changing needs of clients in the healthcare sector. Therefore, the underutilization of these nurses limits them from benefiting the institution. Also, the lack of appropriate leadership increases stress among the staff nurses which needs to be considered (Marshall & Broome, 2017 p.184)

Furthermore, limitation of training and development opportunities hindered nurses from acquiring skills, which would be useful in other areas apart from their field of specialization. Consequently, these nurses could not collaborate with each other during care delivery, which, in turn, compromised the quality of healthcare services. Additionally, these nurses could not assist their colleagues in case of emergency or high traffic in other units.
Article Summary

D’Eramo, A & Puckett, J, B. (2014).Quality and Safety Education for Nurses: Is It Time to Rethink Quality Improvement Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes? Journal of Nursing Education, 53(11):604-605.

The article discusses the significance of educating nurses in limiting cases of preventable errors, which are identified in most healthcare organizations. In particular, D’Eramo and Puckett (2014) advocate reforming the curricula of all of the healthcare staff rather than focusing on the nurses only. Improvement knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) of all healthcare workers will minimize patients’ health care risks. According to D’Eramo and Puckett (2014), medical practitioners should possess some skills for them to understand the significance of process improvement. Additionally, those skills would enable them to identify an appropriate intervention strategy and assess possible outcomes.

Bvumbwe, T, M & Mtshali, N, G. (2018). A middle-range model for improving the quality of nursing education in Malawi. National Institutes of Health, 41(1): 1766.

According to Bvumbwe and Mtshali (2018), training institutions of healthcare practitioners need guidance to improve their productivity. Additionally, the current curricula should be changed to bridge the gap between the expectations of the patients and the healthcare services offered to them by nurses in medical facilities.

Strategies used by other Organizations to address this Issue

Most healthcare organizations in the country have implemented some measures to address the issue of inadequate training and development opportunities for the nurses. First, organizations are using formal curricula in training their nurses and other healthcare staff. Also, they are implementing other existing models of training, including the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT). This model improves the attitude of staff towards teamwork (Singh, 2015). Consequently, they are able to collaborate with each other during care delivery, thus improving the quality of services offered to the patients and the level of patient output.
Summary of the Strategies

The article, which was authored by D’Eramo and Puckett (2014), focused on the possession of improved knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), thus enabling healthcare staff to contribute towards reducing patients’ health care risks. Additionally, the article focused on Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) to improve the knowledge and skills of the nurses, thus enhancing their level of service delivery in the medical facility.

Secondly, the article that was written by Singh (2015), utilized the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT) as the primary model of training healthcare workers. This model was utilized to improve team skills and team collaboration of the staff.

The impact of these Strategies on the Organization

Strategies that were utilized in both articles are likely to affect the organization both positively and negatively. On the negative side, lack of improved knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) among the nurses is likely to prevent them from reducing patients’ health care risks in the organization. On the positive side, the use of the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT) in training healthcare workers will improve team skills and the collaboration of healthcare workers. This move will improve the quality of healthcare services offered to the patients as well as positive patient and staff outcomes (Singh, 2015).

References

Bvumbwe, T, M & Mtshali, N, G. (2018). A middle-range model for improving the quality of nursing education in Malawi. National Institutes of Health, 41(1): 1766.

D’Eramo, A & Puckett, J, B. (2014).Quality and Safety Education for Nurses: Is It Time to Rethink Quality Improvement Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes? Journal of Nursing Education, 53(11):604-605.

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Singh, I. (2015). Training and Professional Development for Nurses and Healthcare Support Workers: Supporting Foundation for Quality and Good Practice for Care of the Acutely III Older Person. International Archives of Nursing and Health Care, 1:2.

Sklar, D. P., Hemmer, P. A., & Durning, S. J. (2018). Medical Education and Health Care Delivery. Academic Medicine, 93(3), 384–390 . Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Assignment Paper