A Hospital’s SWOT Analysis
At the strategic level, the organization must address the nurse shortage, which results in inadequate client services. To make recommendations that need to be implemented at the operational level, a SWOT analysis must be conducted to incorporate its results into the strategic plan. Therefore, the weaknesses that led to the problem should be identified initially.
Weaknesses
Firstly, it is the outflow of professional staff to private hospitals and centers where working conditions are more comfortable for nurses. This is because, despite staff shortages, nurses in public hospitals often work overtime and experience burnout (Gilbert, 2023). Secondly, the decrease in the number of nurses in the organization is due to insufficient funding and non-competitive salaries. Third, the number of nurses graduating from college is insufficient to meet organizational needs (Marć et al., 2019). As a result, these weaknesses contribute to the shortage of nurses in my organization.
Threats
Nevertheless, organizational weaknesses pose specific threats to the hospital’s functioning that need to be strategically minimized. Firstly, due to the shortage of nurses, my hospital employs temporary immigrant nurses who often lack sufficient training (Gilbert, 2023). Secondly, the deficit in the number of potential teachers means that, after college, nurses cannot serve patients independently. Finally, low salaries lead to high staff turnover, resulting in insufficient patient attention (Marć et al., 2019). Consequently, the challenge significantly affects the hospital’s efficiency and success.
Strengths
In addition, after identifying the primary weaknesses and threats, the strengths and opportunities of the strategic plan should be identified to mitigate them. Firstly, the organization’s management has recognized the problem and set a goal to solve it (Marć et al., 2019). Secondly, another strength is the search for opportunities to secure additional funding to meet the hospital’s needs.
Opportunities
In this way, it provides the hospital with the following opportunities to reduce the shortage of nurses. Firstly, improving the competitiveness of salaries and working conditions. Secondly, providing employee training to attract them to work in the hospital and additional incentives for existing staff to stimulate their development (Marć et al., 2019). Therefore, the SWOT analysis helps identify issues and weaknesses, and based on these, find solutions.
Use of SWOT Analysis in Strategic Planning
It is essential to note that the SWOT analysis of the challenge is conducted at the hospital level to develop a comprehensive strategic plan. Accordingly, the environment helps identify all the hospital’s weaknesses and domestic concerns. This enables an objective assessment of potential threats arising from weaknesses (Wadsworth et al., 2016). Therefore, conducting a SWOT analysis within the hospital’s internal environment helps identify all problems and justify the feasibility of future decisions.
Furthermore, those performing the SWOT analysis are hospital employees and can freely communicate with nurses to learn about the real problems and the strategies nurses use to address them (Wadsworth et al., 2016). As a result, this involves maximum nurse involvement in the analysis process, which will demonstrate their value to the organization. Furthermore, the results of the SWOT analysis will accurately reflect the hospital’s major problems and can be used to formulate a change policy objectively.
References
Gilbert, J. H. (2023). Investment in social capital to mitigate nursing shortages post-pandemic. Nurse Leader, 21(1), 69-74.
Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2019). A nursing shortage–a prospect of global and local policies. International Nursing Review, 66(1), 9-16.
Wadsworth, B., Felton, F., & Linus, R. (2016). SOARing into strategic planning. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 40(4), 299-306.