NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum

Assignment: Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum Sample

Nurse leaders are influential in organizational growth as role models, change agents, and promoters of evidence-based practice. Their routine role involves encountering many patients or work-related problems and providing lasting solutions. Often, nurse leaders focus on issues with detrimental effects on patient care. Such issues include nurses’ health and well-being, interprofessional relationships, and workplace incivility. Leadership projects provide nurse leaders with a massive opportunity to improve patient care and the organization’s productivity. Through such projects, nurse leaders collaborate with the management and colleagues to implement positive changes to promote care continuity. Since leadership projects are time-consuming and require massive resource facilitation, their implementers should assess them after implementation to determine their value. The purpose of this paper is to assess the leadership project. Focus areas include a description of the project, outcomes, barriers, success, and AONE competencies.

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Project Description, Implementation Site, and Project Discovery

The essence of a leadership project is to utilize leadership skills to address complex health care challenges. After the initial assessment of organizational needs, the rates of medical errors were alarming and required evidence-based interventions. NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum Such interventions are problem-centered and are designed to address the root of a problem. As a result, the project focus was the nursing shortage, which is a leading cause of medical errors due to a high nurse-patient ratio (Salar et al., 2020). Interventions for a nursing shortage vary with change leaders, severity, and organizational resources. Since the organization was not positioned to employ additional nurses, interventions to empower nurses to better cope with the situation were the most feasible. In response, the project was designed to improve coping and make nurses more resilient to workplace pressures. According to Kim and Chang (2022), enhancing resilience empowers nurses to overcome stressful situations and enables them to adapt positively and maintain their psychological and physical well-being. A similar perspective was applied to address the nursing shortage problem in the site to mitigate its detrimental effects.

The project was implemented at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Shreveport. The facility is a modern hospital with many resources and a diverse workforce to assist patients to achieve their health goals. The hospital specializes in inpatient physical rehabilitation, whose primary objective is to help patients regain their independence, usually lost after a life-changing injury or sickness. The leading causes of the lost independence in the facility include stroke, neurological conditions, and fractures. Health care facilities’ features, values, and care approaches differ and give them different identities. Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Shreveport stresses an interdisciplinary approach to patient care. NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum The approach is characterized by diverse health care teams working together for a common goal (Walton et al., 2019). Patient-centeredness is prioritized, and interdisciplinary team members are available for support and guidance when implementing positive change to address complex health care issues.

Nurse leaders use different approaches to discover the need for a project and its priority. The leadership project became necessary after an in-depth observation of issues hampering patient outcomes revealed a high incidence of medical errors stemming from a nursing shortage. The implication is that a qualitative assessment of organizational problems showed that interventions to reduce the incidence of medical errors should be prioritized. Haddad et al. (2022) described medical errors as a nationwide problem that will continue hampering patient care in the next decade. Medical errors are high in facilities with a high workload due to a high nurse-patient ratio. NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum A high workload increases fatigue and reduces concentration due to emotional exhaustion (Diehl et al., 2021). The lack of concentration increases medical errors.

Measuring Outcomes and Assessing Sustainability

Outcomes of a project demonstrate whether it was worth investing time and resources to implement the project. The project was designed to enable nurses to cope with workplace stressors stemming from a nursing shortage. Its outcomes will be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively three months post-implementation. Quantitatively, a significant reduction in medical errors will accurately indicate a successful project. A comparative analysis of the incidence of medical errors before and after the project will ascertain whether the project achieved the desired outcomes. A reduction of medical errors will signify a proportional improvement in care quality since a high incidence indicates unsafe and low-quality care (Salar et al., 2021). Qualitatively, resilience improves workplace relationships and encourages health care professionals to work together. Therefore, teamwork and interprofessional collaboration will signify positive outcomes.

The project is sustainable and is designed to benefit the facility for a long time. A sustainable approach implies extending outcomes to benefit patients and organizations in the future (Mortimer et al., 2018). NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum The project’s outcomes are long-term since training the nurses improves their knowledge and skills to cope with workplace stressors. The knowledge gained will be applied currently and in successive encounters with similar problems. Several strategies will be instrumental in the project’s sustainability. The first strategy is continuous outcome assessment. The results will indicate whether the current health care team requires further training. The other strategy is providing educational resources guiding nurses on coping through self-care techniques, guided meditation, and practicing mindfulness, among other methods. These resources will empower nurses to implement the techniques to improve coping independently.

Barriers during the Practicum Experience Related to the Project

Project implementation faces many barriers that vary with the project’s scope, resources needed, and implementation time. The first barrier I encountered was the determination of the severity of the problem. Besides a general observation of medical errors, nurses should open up about their experiences with the problem and the contributing factors. Some nurses were not confident narrating their experiences and challenges in everyday care. The other barrier typical in project implementation was resource problems. Training programs require internal and external facilitation. Educational resources require massive financial facilitation, leadership support, and sponsorship. Since the project was not a priority and there were no finances set aside for its implementation, it was challenging to convince the organization’s management about its necessity. The third barrier was time since organizational leaders and nurses are committed to their demanding workload. NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum Implementing the project required them to commit some time off their schedules and was somewhat impractical.

Success Evaluation and the Next Steps

The project was a great success that encourages the implementation of similar or related leadership projects in the practicum site. The first success indicator is its sustainability. Nurses will use the knowledge and skills gained from the project for a long time before requiring a skill update. The second success indicator is that the project can be progressively assessed and improved where necessary. For instance, new coping skills can be incorporated into the current program as situations oblige. The third success indicator is that the project addresses an issue that hampers patient care severely. Medical errors stemming from a nursing shortage severely threaten patient safety and care quality (Salar et al., 2021). NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum Addressing them is instrumental in enhancing patient safety and care quality. It will also improve job satisfaction and reduce potential nurse turnover.

The next steps include designing and implementing measures to enhance the project’s sustainability. Its gains should be long-term, and possible failure should be prevented. To achieve this goal, an evaluation team is necessary. The targeted outcomes should be continually evaluated, and knowledge deficiencies addressed accordingly. The management should also be committed to supporting nurses to implement the skills independently. As a result, the evaluation team should work closely with the management to determine the resources and support nurses require as time advances. It is also sensible to adapt the training as part of the organizational culture and empowerment programs. However, the management must have a consensus on the same before adoption.

Goals and AONE Competencies

Leadership projects should be goal-oriented to enable their implementers to work objectively. One of the goals I set for myself is to lead successful change to address a critical patient care issue. NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum As a result, I was to serve as a change agent to facilitate organizational transformation. As change agents, leaders serve as innovative decision-makers to improve the clinical environment (Green, 2019). The other goal was to play an instrumental role in improving the care quality in the facility as a leader. Concerning AONE competencies, I looked forward to improving my communication skills, relationship building, and knowledge of the health care environment. Improving these competencies will make me a better nurse leader, policymaker, and practitioner.

Project Experience Related to Personal Goals and AONE Competencies

Nurse leaders are adequately skilled in evidence-based practice, and their influence on change implementation is immense. As a change leader, I successfully identified an issue hampering patient care in the facility and led the implementation process. Although it was a challenging exercise, it was equally insightful and satisfying. The insights gained from its implementation will guide me and the organization in developing such projects in the future. Implementing leadership projects implies using evidence-based findings to guide practice change. The project gave me an immense opportunity to consult scientific evidence and apply relevant findings in project implementation. Concerning AONE competencies, the leadership project allowed me to make appropriate presentations, share knowledge on health care issues, and build collaborative relationships. Doing so allowed me to explore the essentials of interprofessional communication and relationship management. NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum Analyzing the problem and being at the center of practice change improved my knowledge of the healthcare environment. Undoubtedly, I have gained massive experience to make me a better leader, practitioner, and advocate of nurses’ and patients’ needs.

NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum Conclusion

Nurse leaders should use their leadership, analytical, and clinical skills to improve practice environments. One of their primary roles is to serve as change agents through identifying practice problems and implementing sustainable solutions. As discussed in this paper, my leadership project was necessitated by a high incidence of medical errors at the practicum site. Stemming from a nursing shortage, the medical errors posed a significant threat to patient safety and care quality hence the need for an instant solution. Improving the nurses’ coping ability is expected to make them more resilient and improve concentration. The knowledge and skills gained from the training will enable them to cope with workplace stressors, improve job satisfaction, and overcome potential burnout

NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum References

Diehl, E., Rieger, S., Letzel, S., Schablon, A., Nienhaus, A., Escobar Pinzon, L. C., & Dietz, P. (2021). The relationship between workload and burnout among nurses: The buffering role of personal, social and organisational resources. PloS One, 16(1), e0245798. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245798

Green, C. A. (2019). Workplace incivility: Nurse leaders as change agents. Nursing Management, 50(1), 51-53. doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000550455.99449.6b

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2022). Nursing shortage. StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

Kelly, L. A., Gee, P. M., & Butler, R. J. (2021). Impact of nurse burnout on organizational and position turnover. Nursing Outlook, 69(1), 96–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.06.008

Kim, E. Y., & Chang, S. O. (2022). Exploring nurse perceptions and experiences of resilience: A meta-synthesis study. BMC nursing, 21(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00803-z

Mortimer, F., Isherwood, J., Wilkinson, A., & Vaux, E. (2018). Sustainability in quality improvement: Redefining value. Future Healthcare Journal, 5(2), 88–93. https://doi.org/10.7861/futurehosp.5-2-88

Salar, A., Kiani, F., & Rezaee, N. (2020). Preventing the medication errors in hospitals: A qualitative study. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 13, 100235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2020.100235

Walton, V., Hogden, A., Long, J. C., Johnson, J. K., & Greenfield, D. (2019). How do interprofessional healthcare teams perceive the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary ward rounds. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 12, 1023-1032. https://doi.org/10.2147%2FJMDH.S226330 NUR 674 Leadership in Health Care Systems Practicum