Change in an organization
One of the most challenging activities is introducing change in an organization. Healthcare organizations are being pressured to reduce medical errors, cut costs, and even adopt new ways of incorporating technology and standard processes that will ensure quality and safety of care to patients (Khankhoje, 2016). Some of the staff, including nurses and physicians, may begin top questions some of the new approaches being adopted by the hospital management especially in circumstances where they believe that the practices conflict their professional values (Maier-Speredelozzi & Suryadevara, 2016). As such, they may less likely adopt new values. As such, it is the role of the healthcare leaders to ensure that they align the innovations with existing cultural values and spend more time explaining how the new processes will ensure the quality of care to the patients.
I have experienced an organizational change in a healthcare organization. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the healthcare organization sought to introduce a bedside shift report that would incorporate the views of the patients concerning the quality of care prescribed upon her by the staff. The old way was just a casual conversation between the nurse and the patient. At first, the majority of the team at the workplace were opposed to this new change because they thought it took much longer and was generally stressful.
However, the CEO of the healthcare organization took the opportunity to address the concerns by highlighting the need of the organization in improving better patient outcomes. Besides, he noted that with the new process, patients will be more engaged in their care and will understand the prescribed medication and procedures, which in turn will influence their patient health outcomes. From this explanation, the nurses began raising questions about situations when the patient is asleep. Generally, this explanation was enough to motivate them to adopt the new change.
References
Khankhoje, M. (2016). Change Management in Healthcare Organizations. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3232774
Maier-Speredelozzi, V., & Suryadevara, K. (2016). Scales to Measure Culture Change in Healthcare Organizations Implementing Continuous Improvement Methodologies. Change Management: An International Journal, 16(4), 19-34. doi: 10.18848/2327-798x/cgp/v16i04/19-34