Introduction
A Nurse Manager is the leader, organiser and facilitator of a ward or area (Swansburg and Swansburg, 2002). To be an effective Nurse Manager one must ensure that all employees understand the mission statement of the ward and incorporate it into their nursing willingly (Swansburg and Swansburg, 2002). In this essay the writer will critically discuss the influence that Nursing Management has on the standard of quality care to patients. This will not only be done by using examples from literature but also by the writers experience in the clinical area.
Risk Assessment
A Nurse Manager promotes the improvement of quality care for patients. A Nurse Manager influences the quality of patient care by ensuring there are no risks to patients;
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It is important to note that patient satisfaction is not the main aim of quality improvement (Moore and Woodrow, 2009). A patient may not be satisfied leaving the hospital, it is important to remember that this does not directly relate to the patient’s health improvement during their stay, this is usually as a result of poor food quality or lack of sleep due to the noisy environment (Moore and Woodrow, 2009). Although these are issues that a patient should not have to face, the main aim of the Nurse Manager is to ensure that the patients call bells are answered in a timely fashion and that the patient received the most appropriate nursing and medical care (Marquis and Huston, 2006). The hospital in which the writer is affiliated to is accredited by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care Organisations (JCAHO), the aim of the JCAHO is to ensure quality care is maintained in all hospital settings. The benefit of the JCAHO for hospitals and healthcare organisations is that the organisation is distinct no governmental organisation that does not have any associations with the hospital, this enables them to provide non biased audits (Joint Commission International, 2002). This enables the Nurse Manager to acquire information on quality of care from a non biased source. On a ward audits should also be …show more content…
This will also encourage the staff to ensure standards of care are always maintained. Carrying out clinical audits and assessing patient care on the ward on a continuous basis and ensures that the quality of the ward is improved if needed. A Nurse Manager should ensure that the quality of the ward is improving by ensuring that adverse incidences are controlled or eradicated and that all members of staff are participating in all protocols put in place. Although a Nurse Manager cannot control whether or not documentation is hand written or submitted electronically, he or she should ensure that all information is documented and that this is done so correctly. When these protocols are in place not only will the Nurse Manager follow then but the nurses will also follow them. This leads to a better standard of care for patients in the
In particular, the use of Florence Nightingale’s theory of nursing as the basis of my new practice had allowed me to begin with the basics and work my way forward toward a more modern and holistic approach to nursing care. While Florence’s work focused mainly on the military and her care of soldiers, she began to establish schools of nursing to promote nursing education and to encourage people to view nursing as a viable profession, (Alligood, 2014. 63). Nightingale’s focus may have been care of the military, but she made great strides on getting recognition for nursing and her theories still affect the practice of nursing today. In the article, Nurses as Leaders, the author proposes that nurse leaders have made great strides since Nightingale’s time when nurses were conscripted to help care for wounded soldiers. Such a setting required these early nurse pioneers to rely on critical thinking and quick action in order to save lives. The author goes on to discuss how a change in nursing occurred in the early 20th century as new management styles emerged, most notable the “Scientific Management,” model. This style placed doctors at the top, then nurse managers, and on down to bedside care staff. Though this did allow some nurses the ability to move upward, nurses resented a doctor being in charge of their teams as the work of a physician and that of a nurse are two very different practices, ("Nurses as Leaders," 2016). This is quite different from the modern concept of a nurse executive as leader of
Young, W. B., Minnick, A. F., & Marcantonio, R. (1996). How wide is the gap in defining quality care?: Comparison of patient and nurse perceptions of important aspects of patient care. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 26(5), 15-20.
Over the past years, there has been a nursing shortage which has led to the need of more registered nurses in the hospital setting. This is the result of higher acuity of patient care and a decrease in their length of hospital stay. In order for the patients to get safe and quality care, the staffing, education and experience of the nursing staff needs to be made a priority. Because of the lack of nurses, patient quality of care has suffered.
The nurse to patient ratio is unrealistic in many hospitals. In most cases it is almost impossible to give each patient the true amount of detailed care they really need. This is seen in most cases where there is one nurse assigned to 16 patients and each patient requires a different level of attention. Nurses are pressed for time, forcing them to cut corners, resulting in an increase in nosocomial infections and patient deaths. “The past decade has been a unsettled time for many US hospitals and practicing nu...
They must be able to appreciate the value of standardization in nursing practice as well as the limitations of the human mind in memorizing and coming up with effective solutions all the time. The practitioner must also play their role in the prevention of errors within the facility while valuing the role of the patient, families and colleagues in as far as monitoring and cross checking is concerned. In addition, they must be able to appreciate the significance of the national safety campaigns and their positive impacts upon implementation in practice.
Hospital administrators will charge nurse leaders with ensuring that patient positive outcomes prevail while also controlling overhead. Nurse leaders are specially trained just for this task. Clinical Nurse Leaders are the experts that America’s patients will rely on to keep them safe and healthy in hospital settings.
Standards are important aspects of nursing that a nurse must learn and implement every day for the rest of their nursing career. These standards provide for a nurse’s competence in the quality of care they deliver to the public. Standards offer a necessary guidance to nurses everywhere in an effort to ensure that people are treated correctly and ethically. Patients expect nurses to have a general knowledge of the medical realm and to know exactly what it is they –as nurses- are responsible for. Nurses need to have a sense of professionalism that enable the patient to feel safe and secure, knowing that a competent person is caring for him. A lack of professionalism does the opposite, making it impossible for a patient to trust or respect the nurse caring for him. Standards of nursing, if utilized correctly, give the nurse that sense of professionalism the patient is expecting. It insures for the safety of the patient and allows the nurse to provide quality health care that is expected of a medical professional.
Some aspects of the nurse’s job have been made easy and facilitated with the aid of other well trained professionals within their working environments. According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) (2012), registered nurse’s performance has greatly improved over the years as a result of their coordination and partnership with the health care system with other health care providers. As a result, registered nurses are today seen to occupy important leadership positions in the healthcare system and they participate when they are making decisions for patients as well as for other
To ensure quality nursing care, I will make sure that I communicate adequately with patients by spending time with them and get to know them further instead of just doing nursing tasks. I will also provide information to patients about their illness or condition including treatments and medication. I will also gain consent before undertaking any tasks or procedures with patients thereby giving them choice.
Maintenance and promotion of quality improvement initiatives are essential for the successful growth and development of the health care industry. Nurses are key to all quality improvement initiatives as they are in the frontlines and have the most contact with the healthcare consumers. Therefore, nursing professionals are good at putting in their valuable inputs for quality improvement efforts. On a daily basis nursing professionals strive to deliver safe, efficient, effective, patient-centered care in a timely manner. With the growth and development in the health care industry, there is an increased need to provide competent and high quality services. Nurses are equipped with distinctive proficiency required for delivery of patient care
High standards of care are expected by patients and families regarding any type of health care. Creating a culture of excellence within an organization is needed to increase patient satisfaction and improve patient outcomes. This paper will examine a hospital that is creating a culture of excellence within the organization to ensure theses outcome. Committees within the organization have been implemented to examine all aspects of the hospital, and its operations to receive input to create change. This corporation is implementing high standards of care and practice that provide a culture of excellence. Reviewing current articles to understand what defines excellence, and the importance it has on an organizations. This paper will also summarize and analyze the interview of a unit manager involved with implementing a culture of excellence. Also this author will discuss nursing theories and standard of practice that lead to the evaluation of this particular topic. This paper will also look at how the author’s journey through the bachelors program has changed her nursing profession, and the opportunities it will open in the future.
I believe it is because knowing why you are doing what you’re doing makes you more knowledgeable, insightful and creative. This is why nurse managers are so valuable on their units to the hospital, they are the ones that hold the communication line between staff and administration. Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is a general medical and surgical hospital that has been located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for over ninety years. It is a private Catholic hospital that serves as a teaching facility to surrounding students in the area. In addition they employee nine hundred physicians, three hundred staff members and treat over 25,000 patients a year. There Rosa Franklin has over thirty six years of experience working. She is currently the nurse manager on Cardiology 1. In this report I will be sharing with you the five managerial functions of a nursing manager in a hospital setting. This includes influencing, planning, organizing, staffing and controlling.
Patient and/or their family members can voice any questions or concerns they may have with the nurses. With reports given at the bedside in the presence of the patient and family, they will know what to expect regarding their plan of care. When patients feel safe, patient satisfaction with the hospital will increase.
The nursing profession has changed drastically over time. The roles and responsibilities that nurses take on have increased and become far more complicated. Nurses are managers, leaders, supervisors and have become experts in many areas of care. Every day nurses are faced with the task of improving and strengthening professional leadership within their work environment. Managing good quality and eliminating risk is the major challenge in health care. All members of the team must work together to accomplish outstanding patient care. Budget cuts and nursing shortage in all areas of health care leads to less licensed staff, where use of unlicensed personnel have been used widely, where delegation is not an option, but a necessity. Nurses must be aware of delegation guidelines, what tasks to delegate,when to delegate for the safety of patients, liability of nurses and the facility.
These demands and expectations can vary from career to career. For example, RN’s are the primary point of contact between the patient and the doctor. RN’s perform patient evaluations such as monitoring vital signs, procedures such as inserting IVs, draw blood and administer medications. Where as a Head Nurse, nursing supervisor will set schedules, assign duties to the nursing staff, and make sure nurses are properly trained. Nursing supervisors must ensure supplies are well stocked and that the end-of-shift work is completed to prepare for the next team of nurses. There are a wide varieties of nursing options, a nurse should not get stagnant in one