Navigating Nursing Challenges: Organizational Culture, Health Informatics, and Role Transition
Question
Task: How do registered nurses address patient safety concerns through the implementation of a safety culture, adapt to and utilize health informatics systems effectively, and manage the challenges associated with role transition, workload, and increased responsibilities during their journey from student to registered nurse?
Answer
PART 1: ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
Description
As a student nurse, I was not aware of the incidents that happen in the medical environment. Until graduation, there is no responsibility of preventing patients from incidents but recently I have experienceda safety concern regarding the prevention of patient scenarios such as infections, wrong surgical procedures, and medication errors. When there is an issue related to the infection, I and other nurses have to speak up about the safety of the patients. The identified issues have been reported to the management and they have taken proper actionsconcerning the safety of the patients (Weaver, et al., 2013).
Analysis
During the safety issues, there is an implementation of the safety program in the organization. This has helped us to speak up about the safety issues for the patients. A safety program has been started in the organization’s culture that helps to overcome the fixed behaviors that lead to bad patient outcomes. The change in the culture within the organization helps to prevent harm to the patients.
An organization should implement a safety culture to improve the safety of the patients and provide quality in the health care unit. Safety cultures are related to the behavior of the clinician that reduces the adverse effects of the events, and reduced mortality. Children’s HealthQueenslandhas launched aspeak-up safety program to train staff of up to 3500 per year. This strategy is fast in design where the target of staff is 3500 staff for safety culture. The target has been exceeded after a year. This ensures that there is a necessity of implementing the speak up program for ensuring the safety of both the clinical and non-clinical staff in the healthcare team. After the program, the feedback from the staff reveals that the program has felt better to ensure that there arethe best patient outcomes and the staff is more confident to speak up (Alanazi, et al., 2022).
Whenever safety issues arise in the organization, the nurse has to speak aboutthem. The organization also should provide a structure for sharing safety concernsregarding patients. When patient safety is spokenabout by the staff then the outcome for the patients will be the best. Every organization should implement the proper safety culture to ensure the safety of the patients thereby improving the speak-up culture.
Reflection
As a registered nurse, l feel that developing a safety culture is an essential element to improve the safety of the patient and the healthcare quality. the safety culture has to be promoted by ensuring the patient security concerns. It improves the safety of the patients and their response to the interventions. Reducing the multiple interventions is considered to be the main strategy for improving the safety culture. Many programs should be conducted in the form of training or communication methods or any interdisciplinary rounds that target the clinical microsystems.
My role is to create a culture of safety within the healthcare unit by maintaining open communication with the healthcare team and accessing the healthcare professionals and behaviorsfor the safety risks and utilizing the interventions in patient protocols, and participating in the shared governance workgroups. It is essential to provide optimized patient outcomes and workplace satisfaction. Open communication helps to share the issues related to the practices that impact the safety of the patients. Culture safety can be attained by taking part in shared governance workgroups.
PART 2: HEALTH INFORMATICS
Description
The health information system includes many technologies that help to support the advanced decision and integrate with medical technology. It creates an opportunity to improve and transform health care by using Electronic Health Records, patient flow systems, storage systems, and other patient browsers, etc to reduce human errors, and improve the outcomes of the clinic. It helps to track the data that is stored regarding the patients and the staff. A registered nurse should know how to use the electronic system to enter patient records using the electronic device or mobile platform. Using an electronic system helps to store the patient records without error and it can be accessed whenever it is required (Ajami, et al., 2013).
Analysis
Health information system makes the storage of patient information in the computer very easier so that the data can be retrieved whenever it is needed. When implementing the health information system in the nursing environment might be an enabler or barrier for the registered nurse. My experience in adoptingthe health information system in the nursing environment is analyzed.
As a registered nurse, I felt it very difficult to use the health information system since there is a lack of knowledge and skills in using it. Due to the lack of knowledge, I have less confidence in using the health information system to reduce human errors to improve accuracy. When there is no knowledge of using the health information system then it will take more time to learn and update the records where there is a possibility of making errors. Likewise, due to the lack of skills, it is difficult to retrieve the diagnostics records, enhance the communication between the nurse and the patients, and update the patient records in the EHR. When there are no skills in operating the health information system then the proper training should be taken for gaining the skills to enhance the communication between the nurse and the patient and update the patient records easily (Pugal, et al., 2022).
Attitude is an enabler that helps me to learn the importance of using health informatics in the medical environment. when comparing paper-basedsystems and health information systems, the computer takes less time to complete the work. Learning the computer system is easy that helps to reduce handwritten documents which take more time and complicated than electronic documents. The other major use of health information systems is reliability. When there is an occurrence of a disaster the paper records will be damaged but when the data is recorded using the health information system, the records can be retrieved when the data is stored in the cloud or using the backup data. this can be a greater influence of using the health information system in the nursing environment which has more advantages in implementing the healthcare environment.
Reflection
as a graduate nurse,I feltmuch ethical use in implementing the health information system in the medical environment and they are as follows:
Increasing the safety of the patient
the health information system is not only used for storing and visualizing patient data but also to synthesize the information of the patients. All the information related to the patient such as laboratory test results, and medical images is stored in one location to avoid mistakes that arise during the decision-making process.
Efficient care
Healthcareinformation system helps the graduate nurse to work with the patient records as well as to take care of the patients. All the workis done simultaneously. It reduces the workload as the patient information, logs, findings, and sharing updates are done electronically.
Increased accessibility
Health information system allows instant access to patient records and the healthcare professionals in the healthcare center. Digital records of the patients help to access the information at any time and any location.
The health information system provides ethical use for the registered nurse in increased accessibility, efficient care, and increased safety of the patient. As a registered nurse there are many workloads such as paper-basedentries, and patient care. When using the health information system, the workload is reduced and efficient care services are given to the patients.
PART 3: TRANSITION TO PRACTICE
Analysis
Challenges faced during the role transition
The process of changing the role from one to other is known as the role transition. it depends upon every individual to adapt to the transition. It may take some time to adaptto the new environment. during the first month of the registered nurse role, they feel more stressed since they are new to the work environment which has more workload. There are many challenges faced by the registered nurse during the role transitions such as workload, androle transition (Mtegha, et al., 2022).
The challenges faced by registered nurses are analyzed below (Opoku, et al., 2021):
Workload
When transferring the role from the graduate to the registered nurse,they experience more workload which has many manual works and task management such as providing the treatment to the patients, responding to queries, guiding the student nurse, and monitoring the harmful drugs. This workload will increase their stress level ofthem. In the case of the registered nurse in any rehabilitation center, they will be completely assigned to work in working hours so the nurse could not properly communicate with their family. This starts aconflictbetween them and they also skip their meals and breakfast. Most of registered nurses think that the workload is a very challenging factor that affects the role transition.
Role transition
The responsibility of the registered nurse will be more when they are compared with the graduate or student nurse. When they are student, they will be monitored by staffs so that their work is supervised. When they are transformed as a registered nurse, they are responsible for the entire work done by them. They are under less supervision and they should work with care. Every individual nurse has to follow the two main principles in the work environment. One is to handle the safety of the patients and the other is to avoid harmful behaviortoward them. They found it very difficult to handle the task when there is a different shift such as AM shift and PM shift in work.
Identification and reflection
Self-care strategies
there may be many challenges when the registered nurse is new to the work environment. they should learn and get guidelines from the senior staff in learning the strategies or methods to overcome the challenges faced during the role transitions. The following strategies help the registered nurse to overcome the challenges of role transition (Speight, et al., 2019).
Training system
there should be a team to train the new staff so that they can learn how to balance the workload when they are new to the work environment. Also, there should be a mentor to monitor them. They should be given training with the specialist people to know the work better. Also, the mentor should train them to know how to work with them, how to deal with the patients, and other work principles. It is also necessary to train them to deal with confidence and advance development in both persona and professionally (Mourh, et al., 2019).
Efficient time management
To overcome the challenges of role transition there should be efficient time strategies. There are separate graduates in occupationaltherapy which help the new staff to learn how to manage the time to deal with the work schedules, overtime, and allowing a social environment.
When transforming intoa registered nurse there should bepositive workplace behavior. They are as follows:
Be kind to the patients
The registered nurse should be kind to all patients so that it ensures their safety and well-being of them.
Be positive towards the work environment
There should be a positive attitude towards the work environment. when it is positivelyapproached then the physical and mental well-being of the individual will be good.
The identified positive behaviour and the strategies help to overcome the challenges that are faced during the role transition from student nurse to registered nurse. There are many challenges that are faced during the role transition and they should be overcome by using a positive attitude and strategies in the work environment. this helps the individuals to learn how to deal with the challenges that are faced during the new work environment as a registered nurse.
REFERENCES
Ajami, S., &Bagheri-Tadi, T. (2013). Barriers for adopting electronic health records (EHRs) by physicians. Acta Informatica Medica, 21(2), 129.
Alanazi, F. K., Sim, J., &Lapkin, S. (2022). Systematic review: Nurses' safety attitudes and their impact on patient outcomes in acute?care hospitals. Nursing Open, 9(1), 30-43.
Mourh, J., & Newby, B. (2019). Barriers and Strategies for Transition from Student to Successful Hospital Pharmacist. The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 72(3), 219.
Mtegha, M. B., Chodzaza, E., Chirwa, E., Kalembo, F. W., &Zgambo, M. (2022). Challenges experienced by newly qualified nurse-midwives transitioning to practice in selected midwifery settings in northern Malawi. BMC nursing, 21(1), 1-12.
Opoku, E. N., Khuabi, L. A. J. N., & Van Niekerk, L. (2021). Exploring the factors that affect the transition from student to health professional: an Integrative review. BMC Medical Education, 21(1), 1-12.
Pugal, K., Villar, R., &Nashwan, A. J. (2021). Barriers for Using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by Nurses in Qatar: A Cross Sectional Study. Babali Nursing Research, 2(3), 89-105.
Speight, C., Firnhaber, G., Scott, E. S., & Wei, H. (2019, October). Strategies to promote the professional transition of new graduate nurse practitioners: a systematic review. In Nursing forum (Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 557-564).
Weaver, S. J., Lubomksi, L. H., Wilson, R. F., Pfoh, E. R., Martinez, K. A., & Dy, S. M. (2013). Promoting a culture of safety as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 158(5_Part_2), 369-374.
