Assignment 2: Implementation Plan
Goals of the Implementation Plan
Following the research study that was done to reveal the challenges facing nursing profession, some factors were determined to have a major impact on the challenges that are currently being faced. Based on these considerations, the following goals were formulated for this implementation plan;
– To push the government to increase the number of Registered Nurses in public hospitals.
– To reduce the workload of nurses by reducing the number of patients per nurse.
– To increase the number of nursing students and graduates.
– To improve the payment terms and salaries of Registered Nurses.
Engaging Stakeholders and Goals
It is required that Registered Nurses who are currently working in public hospitals be included in the implementation plan where they will give suggestions of what should be given priority to fully address the challenges they are currently facing. This will be a chance for the public health representatives and managers to get a clear understanding of what the nurses are going through owing to the low number of qualified nurses in this profession (“Patient Safety: A Shared Responsibility,” 2016). The assessment of the patient outcome will also give details of what the patients are undergoing on the hands of insufficient numbers of registered nurses.
This is the stage during which the findings of the research will be communicated to all stakeholders involved to convince them that there is a major challenge facing the nursing profession in hospitals and the need for urgent action. The explanation of the findings will be specific to particular areas that need improvements to ensure that the changes involved are also specific and not generalized. Specific changes on particular issues that are of great importance are hoped to make improvements on the current status of nursing staffing which has greatly deteriorated. In particular, this is the time the existing staffing ratios will be explained alongside the supposed ratios that are meant to improve the current nursing. The measure for this implementation process and the goals involved will be based on the proposed changes and comparing this with the current patient outcome.
Goals and Variables
Four variables will be introduced for this implementation process to assess the attainment of the goals. One, it will be required that the number of patients that one nurse serves on a daily basis be reduced by about 30%. This will be an indication of reduced workload for the nurse which is one of the goals for this implementation plan (“Section 2: Engaging Stakeholders in a Care Management Program | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality”, 2016). This will also give information that the increased number of nurses will be in a better position to handle the high number of patients that are always seeking medical services, especially in acute hospitals.
Secondly, it will be required that the number of specialized nurses be increased to have a specialist in each department in public hospitals. This will give details of how well members of the community will be able to get specialized treatment for conditions that are current costing them a lot as they seek quality treatment in private hospitals. This will be a counter-change that will respond to the current shift where most of the Registered Nurses have shifted their services from public sector to private basis. The cost of the private nursing services is always expensive, and a common citizen will always find it hard to access these specialized treatment options.
Thirdly, it will be required that the salary levels of the Registered Nurses be increased to match what other states are paying for similar services. This will be an incentive that will encourage the nurses to work hard on their areas without eyeing the private sector as a source of better payment. Improving the payment terms of the nurses will show an increase in their gross earnings (“American Association of Colleges of Nursing | Strategies to Reverse the New Nursing Shortage”, 2016). This will go along with added benefits, insurance coverage, and favorable pension terms.
The last variable will be tied to the increasing the number of medical students and fresh graduates who end up taking roles as Registered Nurses to increase the number of registered nurses who are currently unable to handle the high numbers of patients with diverse medical needs. Increasing the number of nursing students will require that admission requirements for those willing and interested in the nursing profession.
The implementation process will make use of PowerPoint presentation of the findings of the research that was done to communicate the proposed ideas and solutions to the stakeholders. This will be an effective way that every detail of this implementation plan will be communicated to the relevant persons to facilitate timely changes that will produce a positive impact on the current trends in the nursing profession. The presentation will give details of what both the patients and nurses are undergoing while using the current nursing services and systems in hospitals and comparing it with what they would experience should the proposed changes be implemented.
Time Frame
For this implementation plan, the time frame will be spread out into phases where the most demanding issues such as shortage of nurses will be addressed first. This will make sure that quality of medical services continues to get improved as other proposed strategies continue to be sought. Specifically for public hospitals, it is projected that the number of Registered Nurses will be increased within a period of two years to produce a desirable nursing outcome. Other proposed solutions like increasing the number of nursing graduates will require long-term strategies that will not only act on nursing profession but also on the education system that determines which students are suitable for a particular course. Making improvements on the payment terms of the nurses is projected to take at most one year after holding negotiations with the right authorities. It is up to the healthcare stakeholders to work closely with the government departments responsible for labor and salary regulation to discuss the deteriorated working terms surrounding the nursing profession. It is through these negotiations that they will be able to discuss the need to improve the payment terms of the nurses to improve the overall quality of nursing services.
It will be required that all stakeholders agree with the proposed changes as this are the only way the implementation process will be favored without any objection. Consideration will be given to just work with realistic goals that are achievable when making changes to improve the nursing services considering the fact that resources are limited, and high projected goals will be hard to achieve (Le, 2009). The changes are urgent due to that demand for nursing services is always high and the time frame to achieve the goals should be a short one.
Leadership and Technology
It is upon the leadership of the hospitals to push for implementation of this plan and to make sure that the proposed solutions are attended to in full capacity. The managers are hoped to work closely with the government to seek for more funds to respond to the needs that were revealed in the study. For confirmation purposes, the leadership is supposed to allow for more studies to assess the viability of past research studies upon which the implementation plan is based on. In the struggle to improve the current status of the nursing profession, it is very important that the management thinks of acquiring the most recent automated systems that are used in diagnosis and treatment of various medical conditions (Kleinpell, 2013). These are systems known to have a high accuracy and the results generated are highly reputable.vv
References:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing | Strategies to Reverse the New Nursing Shortage.
(2016). Aacn.nche.edu. Retrieved 30 September 2016, from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/tri-council-shortage
Kleinpell, R. M. (2013). Outcome assessment in advanced practice nursing. New York, NY:
Springer.
Le, M. A. (2009). Communities of Practice in Health and Social Care. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Patient Safety: A Shared Responsibility. (2016). Nursingworld.org. Retrieved 30 September
Section 2: Engaging Stakeholders in a Care Management Program | Agency for Healthcare
Research & Quality. (2016). Ahrq.gov. Retrieved 30 September 2016, from http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/long-term-care/resources/hcbs/medicaidmgmt/medicaidmgmt2.html
