Change
Healthcare industry has undergone many changes in recent years, especially in the implementation of new technologies, which proved to enhance operational efficiency and improve patient safety and satisfaction. Still, from the healthcare workers’ perspective, it is a complicated process of constant learning and adaptation of these cutting-edge innovations, which can cause burnout among the employees.
Change: Planned
I’m going to talk about a planned change, namely the implementation of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can perform such human-like abilities as perception, thinking, planning, learning, and manipulation of objects. It is of great use in healthcare as it enables more precise decision-making, particularly for nurses. For instance, At the Massachusetts Institute of Medicine (MIT), nurses use AI-driven robotics to help with resource allocation decision-making such as bed management and nurse staffing, using vision techniques, speech recognition, and critical thinking. Moreover, it allows nurses to spend more time with patients while performing administrative tasks (Carroll, 2019). Importantly, even though a planned change is more accessible to implement than a spontaneous one, the process does not end here and requires constant sustaining and managing.
Goals for the change
The main goals of introducing AI in a nursing care setting are: to increase efficiency and facilitate decision-making process with the help of special algorithms analyzing data from many healthcare data sources, including EHRs, medical claims, voice/audio files, images, and workforce and hospital data such as staffing and bed management; and to improve human-to-human communication, allowing nurses to spend more quality time with the patients.
To sum up, the final goal of any changes in healthcare industry is to increase safety and satisfaction of the patients. You can see the different ways of AI and Robotics implementation with the purpose of facilitating the process, such as conducting research, detecting diseases on early stages and so on.
Managing Strategies
At the utmost importance is attitude management, or fostering change-tolerate attitudes managing strategies. It includes keeping the staff up to date with all the latest research and findings on the topic of innovations, reminding them of the positive consequences of their implementation, and the life-changing mission nurses perform, to keep them motivated. Such behavior of the Nursing Director should be in place on the stage of planning change to make the further process of adaptation and reaction to innovation (AI in this case) smoother.
As changes are not always received in a positive manner, it is essential to find the right way for those who resist and those who support. Firstly, the leader must demonstrate the necessity of change here and now. After the recognition of the need, the leadership comes to the first place. It implies the individual approach to each worker, especially ones who have difficulties with technologies; moreover, as the nurses’ comprehension of the foundations of AI within the nursing practice is essential, it makes sense to provide special training and education in the working place. Lastly, the Nursing Director should emphasize the positive sides of the innovation; for example, to underline the decrease in performance of bureaucratic and administrative procedures by nurses.
The change is considered to be sustained when new conditions of working become the norm, including the staff attitude. This last stage is the most difficult and requires especial patience of the leader and the proper performance of the previous steps. Among several strategies that can be used, one can mention the involvement of the front-line employees in decision-making. Moreover, they can help others with technical expertise, which will help to build trust and partnership on every level of communication and facilitate the learning process. Another point is to gather feedback from the nurses to understand their opinion and attitude and then address the main problems.
Kurt Lewin 3-stage Model
One of the models that can be applied is Lewin’s change model involving three steps: unfreezing, changing and refreezing. It demonstrates a simplistic model of the change process. Due to the natural resistance to changes, the goal during the unfreezing stage is to create an awareness of the problems with the status quo, which can be overcome with the new technologies. Communication is especially important during the unfreezing stage.
‘Unfrozen’ people start moving to the next step: the change itself. This transition is full of uncertainty when the employees learn about new technologies (in my case) and try to adapt to new circumstances. Therefore, education, communication and support play an essential role during this stage. Employees should be constantly reminded of the reasons for the change and which advantages it will bring them once fully implemented.
The last step, according to Lewin, is called freezing, but many refer to it as refreezing to emphasize the act of reinforcing the new state after the change. Now, most people get used to new processes. Lewin found the refreezing step to be especially important to avoid the reverse process. Positive rewards are an effective way to ensure the continuation of such efforts.
Lean thinking
LEAN thinking is another method for the improvement of change processes. It can be traced back to William Deming, but can be as well implemented in the healthcare environment. In short, such business philosophy refers to the creation of more value with fewer resources. Thus, the final goal remains the same: to increase a patient’s satisfaction by reducing errors, costs, time for decision-making, and so on.
Communication Approach
It is clear that communication between the leader and the ‘followers’ is the most important part throughout the whole process of a change: from the planning to the sustaining. Thus, all the issues should be addressed to avoid any afterthoughts that can lead to inaccurate conclusions. The more information the employees have, the more understanding of the necessity of innovation they get.
The resistance should be dealt with as well. Therefore, the nursing director should possibly conduct individual conversations with such people in order to understand their fears and alleviate them. As an option, it is possible to arrange the trial period of change implementation to make staff realize the convenience of the innovation in practice. However, if all the methods seem useless, it is better to let the resisters go to prevent the further spread of toxic and resisting atmosphere among the staff.
References
Burnes, B. (2020). The origins of Lewin’s three-step model of change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(1), 32-59.
Carroll, W. M. (2019). Artificial intelligence, critical thinking and the nursing process. On-Line Journal of Nursing Informatics, 23(1).
Norwich University Online. (2017). Leading Nurse Teams Through Change. Web.
Norwich University Online. (2018). Cutting Edge Technology and Modern Hospital Rooms. Web.
PWC. (2022). No longer science fiction, AI and robotics are transforming healthcare. Web.
Ramori, K. A., Cudney, E. A., Elrod, C. C., & Antony, J. (2021). Lean business models in healthcare: a systematic review. Total quality management & business excellence, 32(5-6), 558-573.