Changing Handoffs: The Shift is On
The article by Costello (2010) describes the importance of listening to reports of previous nursing shifts, as this factor’s disregard might have an adverse impact on various healing processes in a hospital. Moreover, unlicensed specialists must adhere to the instructions provided by their team members, as they are not legally responsible for particular actions that might cause harm to their patients.
The author of the article says that one of the most essential reasons for improper patient-centered activities and treatment is the lack of personnel’s knowledge and experience of working in a team (Costello, 2010). Due to this drawback, reports by assistant nurses might contain false data that can affect patients’ health conditions. As to providing accurate information, different shift reports by nurses may not meet The Joint Commission requirements that are essential to follow. Therefore, working in a team is especially important for newcomers who do not have any understanding of what their duties in a hospital present.
It would be proper to mention that reviewing and listening to reports of previous nursing shifts is necessary as various situations can emerge during the period of one’s absence. For instance, some patients had a set medical treatment process, but their conditions suddenly worsened, which obliged nurses from another shift to use additional medicaments and necessary measures to reduce severe pains in these people.
The following healing process should be adjusted in accordance with the effects provided by medicine used in such a situation. Another important issue that might emerge during shift changes is sparsely filled documentation about completed duties (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2013). The table’s inappropriate documents should provide information about every patient’s condition, beneficial or harmful use of medicine, and every other medical process that has to be noticed in the future. Reports would not be necessary if only one shift worked all the time. However, as people need to rest and gain new energy, they ought to provide their colleagues with all the required data, whereas another shift should adhere to the given instructions.
Selecting the Best Theory to Implement Planned Change
The article by Mitchell (2013) discusses the importance of the change theory implementation as it presents three different hypotheses by the scholars who happened to face the problem of their organizations’ slow developments. The first theory (under the title of unfreezing) is presented by Lewin. According to his statements and conclusions, the prevalent developmental situation at any company or organization should be analyzed by its employees to obtain the full image of the most important issues to influence and increase for a particular institution’s further productivity and efficiency (Mitchell, 2013).
The next stage (under the title of moving), requires people to take specific actions, make changes, and involve their colleagues or partners in this movement. The last stage (refreezing) is intended to establish particular changes permanently and to enjoy the desired outcomes if these measures turn out to be efficient.
Another scholar, Lippitt, developed his change theory, which had a different model as it was divided into four levels (assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation.) While considering the assessment stage, it is essential to understand the primary reasons for any problem that has emerged (Burke, 2017). Moreover, it is important to motivate other people for changes as only one employee cannot accomplish every goal for the future development of his or her hospital. While planning, a change agent should set clear goals to reach suggested missions and choose appropriate roles for every member of the team.
The implementation stage is simple in explaining but remains the hardest in completing as all the maintained changes should be obvious and beneficial for a particular organization. Finally, at the level of evaluation, all members of the implemented strategy should analyze their achievements to realize all the necessary actions for future development.
References
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Costello, M. (2010). Changing handoffs: The shift is on. Nursing Management, 41(10), 38-42. Web.
Mitchell, G. (2013). Selecting the best theory to implement planned change. Nursing Management, 20(1), 32-37. Web.
Sand-Jecklin, K., & Sherman, J. (2013). Incorporating bedside report Into nursing handoff. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 28(2), 186-194. Web.