Choose an organization that holds a shared governance council meeting (shared governance is a venue for members to have a voice in decisions), that usually meets monthly or quarterly. Contact the chair, co-chair or similar lead, and inquire if you can discuss what happens during the meetings, who the members are, and how a decision are made. Maybe find out what was on the agends as well.  Shared Governance Essay Example

Shared Governance

Introduction

Collaborative meetings are very important and effective in helping healthcare committees deliver their duties and function appropriately. Different committees use different approaches to connect with other committee members and achieve their collaborative duties to lead organizations. Shared governance promotes and supports joint accountability and responsibility during decision-making processes, particularly in healthcare organizations (Kutney-Lee et al., 2016). Accordingly, this paper will describe the role and function of a committee I attended and discuss whether the committee’s decision-making process was based on shared governance.  Shared Governance Essay Example

Committee Function and Role

Recently, I was privileged to attend a Diabetes Resource Committee meeting that was held in the healthcare organization that I am currently working in. The committee is made up of different interprofessional members that include two diabetes Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs); one podiatrist; two physicians; one pharmacist; two dieticians; one ophthalmologist; one endocrinologist; and one social worker. The main agenda of the committee is to manage diabetes care and interactions between healthcare providers providing diabetes care. The team focuses on facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration that is essential for optimal diabetes care for individuals with diabetes. The specific activities of the Diabetes Resource Committee involve establishing diabetes care goals, providing clinical staff education, as well as designing and implementing quality improvement activities aimed to evaluate and facilitate optimal management of diabetes in both outpatient and inpatient settings.

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The Committee Interaction and Process

The committee seemed well-organized and the meeting started on time. During the meeting, I observed various features of shared governance as the members of the committee interacted with each other and shared their ideas collaboratively. Shared governance is a process that involves partnership, equity, accountability, collaboration, and ownership during decision-making (French-Bravo & Crow, 2015). Shared governance puts authority, responsibility, and accountability for the decisions into the people responsible for operationalizing the decisions (Kutney-Lee et al., 2016). Shared governance was very evident during the meeting for this committee. For example, I noted that the team leader of the committee had shared the agenda of the meeting with all team members before the meeting was held. This ensured that a mutual agenda since every member of the committee was aware of the objectives of the meeting and had done prior preparations regarding their views, ideas, and questions to ask.  Shared Governance Essay Example

Additionally, I noted that the committee had uniform ground rules for everyone during the meeting. For example, no member was allowed to demean another regardless of their position in the committee. Also, during the meeting members strived for consensus decisions and thus the committee members would first discuss the available options and then collaboratively agree on the decision to support. Another aspect of shared governance during the meeting was that every member gave their opinions and ideas, where all contributed ideas were discussed by all committee members and the final decision arrived collaboratively. Finally, during the meeting’s discussions, I also noted that the committee held meetings regularly and there were formal means of communication to all committee members and the organization in general.

Conclusion

I attended a Diabetes Resource Committee meeting that was held in the healthcare organization I am currently working on. The committee consists of healthcare professionals from different disciplines. During the meeting, shared governance was evident since members interacted with each other and shared their ideas collaboratively.

References

French-Bravo, M & Crow, G. (2015). Shared Governance: The Role of Buy-In in Bringing about Change. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(2).

Kutney-Lee, A., Germack, H., Hatfield, L., Kelly, S., Maguire, P., Dierkes, A., Del Guidice, M., & Aiken, L. H. (2016). Nurse Engagement in Shared Governance and Patient and Nurse Outcomes. The Journal of nursing administration, 46(11), 605–612. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000412.

PLEASE FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS:
Choose an organization that holds a shared governance council meeting (shared governance is a venue for members to have a voice in decisions), that usually meets monthly or quarterly. Contact the chair, co-chair or similar lead, and inquire if you can discuss what happens during the meetings, who the members are, and how a decision are made. Maybe find out what was on the agends as well.

Attend a committee meeting in your health care organization. If you are not currently employed in a health care setting, you may elect to attend a committee meeting at another company, a community center, a local school, local chamber of commerce or other professional organization.

Observe the interactions between committee members and the process used by the committee to arrive at decisions.

In 500-750 words, describe the function of the committee and the roles of those in attendance. Describe your observations of the interactions between members of the committee and determine whether the process used to arrive at decisions is a form of shared governance.  Shared Governance Essay Example