PM FPX 4010 Assessment 2

Interview Summary

Emily, supervisor of nurses at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Huntington, was kind enough to participate in this interview. Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Huntington is an acute rehabilitation hospital with expertise in neurological, orthopedic, stroke, and spinal cord injury rehab.

Emily is a baccalaureate nurse and has been working at Encompass for five years as a three-year nursing supervisor. She supervises staff, manages difficult issues, and enforces necessary rules and regulations. She also observes patients, works with physicians, provides education to nursing staff, and is floor support.

Since the interview, Emily listed some issues faced at Encompass Health. The turnover of nursing and lack of staff have increased nurse-to-patient ratios, which have affected patient care in a negative way. Emily cited that two years ago, the nurse-to-patient ratio was seven patients to one nurse, but the management has increased the ratio to save costs. She proceeded to state that the growth has contributed to it being increasingly difficult to maintain staff, whereby the rate of turnovers becomes higher. Emily has apprised the chief nursing officer that lowering the ratio of nurse to patient will curb turnover. 

PM FPX 4010 Assessment 2:Issue Identification

Emily was now aware of existing problems concerning the nurse-to-patient ratios as well as the lack of support by management and ancillary staff. Include nurses at Encompass, who usually carry an average of eight or nine patients, sometimes ten. Approximately nine months ago, the administration adjusted the ratio of patients to nurses to an optimal level of eight per nurse, and this actually improved morale and kept some nurses working. This did not last, as the administration increased the ratio incrementally to nine due to increasing absence and staff turnover.

The turnover rate is also high, placing an extra burden on existing staff and affecting patient care quality. Additionally, an absence of cooperation and communication between staff has led to increased patient complaints and treatment errors (Asirifi et al., 2022). Evidence has shown that staffing has been associated with decreased mortality, error rates in drug administration, pressure ulcers, restraints, infection, and pneumonia rates (Driscoll et al., 2018).

In order to achieve the turnover rate and how it impacts patient care, an interdisciplinary group can develop a plan. The same group of people can also develop plans for improving teamwork and communication among workers. Utilizing the interdisciplinary approach, the group can develop advanced plans that address the root causes of such a problem as well as attend to the special needs of the medical-surgical unit.

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

The health care sector is always changing, and almost two out of three change attempts fail because of poor planning, low motivation, poor communication, or too much change. This poses a tremendous challenge within the health care sector, where everyone who is a health care professional, from the boardroom to the bedside, has the responsibility of facilitating change to be successful. Applying the best practice in change theories will contribute to improved outcomes and practice (Barrow et al., 2022).

Turnover rate impacts patient quality care, threatening employees to provide high-quality care during a deficit in nurses. In order to reverse this, an interprofessional group may collaborate and create a plan and methods of improving employee communication and interaction. Using an interprofessional practice model would enable the team to produce holistic approaches that address underlying concerns and act on the tailored needs of the facility.

Although all the change theories have distinct features, commonalities between them can give rise to best practices of effective change management. In managing nursing turnover, Lippitt’s change theory may be specifically applicable. This model, a development of Lewin’s original theory, involves increasing awareness of the need for change, building a relationship between the change agent and the system, defining the problem, action planning and goal setting, executing the change, acceptance of the staff, stabilization, and rebuilding the relationship of the change agent with the system (Barrow et al., 2022).

Change is incremental in nature, and adherence to change theories doesn’t guarantee success but can identify the best practices of implementing and leading change. Processes of change are influenced by the multifaceted internal and external forces. Employing force field analyses, involving all shift change champions and facilitating ongoing communication, can optimize success (Barrow et al., 2022).

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

In order to reduce the turnover of nurses, Encompass Health ought to embrace transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is a management style that challenges nurses to take ownership of their work and go beyond expectations. Transformational leadership motivates employees by appealing to their desire to perform at an excellent level of ethics and morality and promoting orientation toward the general good of the organization and its members instead of personal objectives.

Transformational leadership brings about a more job-satisfying work environment. Organizations that utilize this leadership model have seen the attitude and work satisfaction of their employees improve. Higher retention levels and better employee morale are just some of the advantages of transformational leadership. Happy and energized nurses improve the quality of their work (How to Apply Transformational Leadership in Nursing?, n.d.). 

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

Interdisciplinary collaboration is where workers come together and share their expertise, skills, and experience in order to care for the patients properly. Encompass has incorporated interdisciplinary collaboration practices in recent times. Successful interdisciplinary teams focus more on shared outcomes than on individual achievements, failures, level of experience, and educational background. The diversity in opinion among the team helps members better understand one another and create the best strategies for taking care of the patients (Nancarrow et al., 2019). Open communication, collaborative working, and making decisions together bring staff, organization, and patient benefits.