Week 6: Change and innovation are inevitable
Change and innovation are inevitable in the healthcare industry. They typically occur in one of three ways – through the emergence of events, discussions with others, and development of practices (Huber, 2014). Depending upon their implementation, work environments will either grow from the positive results or suffer from the negative effects. Therefore, it is essential that change and improvements within an organization are effectively managed. The purpose of this post is to discuss the importance of understanding and effectively managing change and innovation. In addition, two examples illustrating how change has been implemented within my organization will also be discussed along with change theory elements.
It is important to understand the differences between change and innovation. Change is a disturbance in work or within an organization. Innovation is the implementation of a new method, product or system (Huber, 2014). It is undeniable that both of these entities co-exist and are needed within the healthcare platform. However, the way that each of these are employed is critical to its successful implementation. That is, change brings about a number of negative emotions – insecurity, frustration, confusion, anger, and resistance. As a result, organizational transformation is extremely difficult, leading to a 70% failure rate (Brickman, 2016).
To be successful, well-planned strategies must be integrated by leaders that are willing to educate staff and provide support systems (Khalil, 2015). Leaders must understand that staff are historically suspicious, cynical, and distrustful (Brickman, 2016). Therefore, leaders need to actively engage, listen and involve staff with its process from the beginning. If those who are directly affected by change are not committed to its implementation, it will fail (Huber, 2014). Simply, ineffective mismanagement of change leads to unsuccessful execution (Huber, 2014). On the contrary, successful leaders implement change by promoting participation, providing knowledge about the process and the reasoning of it, encouraging participants to accept it, and allowing for feelings to be expressed (Huber, 2014).
Currently, I work as a labor and postpartum nurse. Since 2013, our unit has had three different department managers, and our hospital has had two different chief nursing officers – the most recent manager and officer joined our organization in 2017. Since that time, a number of changes have occurred, mainly from our department manager. First, in preparation for the Ohio Department of Health visit this fall, an end-of-shift checklist was recently incorporated within our daily routine. These checklists serve as documented and enforced “reminders” of how to effectively chart on each patient. Nurses scrutinize their own charting each shift and attest that it is complete, accurate and according to hospital policy. At the end of shift, each checklist is validated by the charge nurse. Although this checklist serves as an effective reminder, it was implemented in an authoritarian style with little direction or prior input from staff. As a result, this change felt punitive, which generated feelings of incompetency, discontent and anger among staff nurses.
Another change that occurred is the way our department handles on-call sign-up. When a six-week schedule is released, on-call coverage is also generated – typical for an obstetrics unit. For fairness, the day and night shifts rotate from one schedule to the next, and each employee within that shift also rotates, allowing each nurse a turn to be first. Recently, it was determined by our leadership team (i.e. the department manager and five charge nurses) that there are too few charge nurse incentives, and that charge nurse on-call shifts are not being adequately covered. As a result, it was mandated that these nurses are no longer required to rotate for on-call sign-up. Instead, they are allotted first choice preference each time the call list is generated. Again, this change was implemented in an authoritarian style with no input from the general nursing staff. To make matters worse, the “unfilled” shifts that were supposed to be covered by charge nurses have been left unfilled. To say the least, this change has been unsuccessful in solving coverage voids. On the contrary, it was successful in bestowing power and privilege to a select few. Overall, staff morale is poor and there is harbored resentment among nurses due to this implemented change.
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Week 6: It’s impossible to avoid change and innovation.
Week 6: It’s impossible to avoid change and innovation.
In the healthcare industry, change and innovation are unavoidable. They usually manifest themselves in one of three ways: through the emergence of events, conversations with people, or the creation of habits (Huber, 2014). Depending upon their implementation, work environments will either grow from the positive results or suffer from the negative effects. Therefore, it is essential that change and improvements within an organization are effectively managed. The purpose of this post is to discuss the importance of understanding and effectively managing change and innovation. In addition, two examples illustrating how change has been implemented within my organization will also be discussed along with change theory elements.
It is important to understand the differences
