LDR 615 Change Initiative Creating Vision

Sample Answer

The constant quest for better or improved services in sectors such as healthcare has led to the formulation of initiatives and efforts to improve activities and strategies that can support continuous improvements. One of the common approaches used in such instances is undertaking a change initiative to help solve an identified problem through improvement strategies.

The problem of focus is nurse burnout, which has been shown to have negative impacts both on the nurses’ work life and patient outcomes (Jun et al.,2021). As such, the purpose of this assignment is to address the implementation of a mentorship program to reduce nurse burnout in Dignity Health Management Center. In addition, this paper also discusses the forces behind this change, its impacts on the organization, the steps needed to respond to the change, how employees will respond to the initiative, and the vision for change.

Organization – Mission, Stakeholders, Driving Forces in the Industry, & Viability of the Organization

The organization of focus is Dignity Health Management Center, which is part of a network of Dignity Health Care Centers. This is a non-profit organization, first established in the year 1854. This organization has grown over the years and currently serves many patients, offering various services such as assisted living (“Dignity,” 2022). The vision of this organization is to keep patients whole, healthy, and happy through collaboration as a team, taking action, and advocacy.

They also work by improving the well-being and health of the clients and promoting social justice for everyone as a mission. It is important to discuss the stakeholders since they play a crucial role in the organization. This organization has several stakeholders. The organization has both patients and employees which form arguably the most notable stakeholders. The organization has a chief nursing officer, vice president of operations, medical director, chief finance officer, chief executive officer, and president of the organization (“Dignity”, 2022).

These stakeholders all have distinct roles that they play to ensure that the organization runs smoothly, achieves its targets, and meets its vision and mission. In addition, they also collaborate to implement formulated procedures and policies to ensure that the system effectively functions as required.

Analysis of the Effect of Driving Forces on the Organization and Department(s)

External and internal forces largely impact organizational change. Therefore, it is important to focus on them to appropriately modify them to positively drive the change. One of the external forces is technological advances and changes. Healthcare technology is fast-paced and impacts how services are performed or carried out in healthcare organizations. This force comes from the need to offer healthcare services effectively and improve efficiency.

Therefore, various healthcare technologies and informatics are used to perform activities and complete tasks focused on improving patient outcomes (Haleem et al.,2022). An internal force that drives change in the organization is high patient volume, which requires nurses to work harder and sometimes longer, which leads to burnout. Therefore, it is important to focus on such a force and modify it through proven strategies to help reduce nurse burnout and improve patient outcomes.

Nurse burnout is one of the major issues found in the organization. It involves a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, mainly resulting from long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations (Sullivan et al.,2022). Therefore, the individuals feel a sense of ineffectiveness, detachment from work, and cynicism. The problem leads to emotional symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and irritability.

Some of the physical symptoms that can result from the problem include fatigue, insomnia, and headache. Consequently, other effects such as turnover, absenteeism, decreased job satisfaction, and disengagement from work can be experienced. This problem, coupled with the forces of technological changes, offers an opportunity for the organization to implement strategies that can help fight the problem and enable nurses to leverage technological changes or advances to improve patient outcomes.

Proposal of Steps for Responding to Change

As earlier indicated, the proposed change entails implementing a mentorship program to help nursing staff deal with burnout. Therefore, it is vital to explore the steps required for the organization to respond to the driving force. The first step entails a clear definition of the change initiatives to help others understand them and why they are needed. It will also be key to formulate a communication strategy to help everyone understand what the change entails.

This step should be followed by the implementation of the mentorship program. The proposed mentorship program involves various activities focused on improving the situation by fighting nurse burnout (Cavanaugh et al.,2022). For example, the program will be vital for the provision of emotional support by offering safe spaces to report feelings about burnout, frustrations, and other challenges.

It will also help in skill development since the mentors play a crucial role in ensuring that the mentees develop skills such as work-life maintenance, workload management, and stress management. Role modeling as part of the mentorship program can also help in the demonstration of resilience, professionalism, and coping strategy, which can then help the mentees learn important lessons on stress reduction and burnout management.

It is expected that the proposed change will be well received by staff in the organization as it will help them cope better with factors that lead to burnout (Cavanaugh et al.,2022). It is also expected that the organizational leaders will embrace the new program and integrate it as part of the organization’s normal programs used in staff retention and capacity building. Therefore, the mentorship program will play a crucial role as a change initiative to not only improve the nurse’s ability to perform care activities better but also improve patient outcomes.

Vision For Change

The organization has a mission of assisting individuals to live better lives by offering safe and high-quality healthcare supported by appropriate staff training. The organization also focuses on developing a long-term relationship with patients and offering acceptable levels of care to the patients. The vision change entails supporting the staff in the best way possible through a mentorship program to boost their capacity and resilience in dealing with burnout for better patient services and outcomes.

This vision relates to the mission of ensuring that individuals are offered better lives through high-quality care. Such a vision can only be achieved through better patient care activities and ensuring that the nursing staff do not suffer from nurse burnout. It is important to present this vision to the internal stakeholders. Therefore, this vision will be presented through one-on-one meetings where the stakeholders will be informed of the vision and why it is important to pursue it.

Evaluation of Stakeholder Response and Considerations to Change and Vision

As earlier highlighted, change initiatives are necessary to help solve problems experienced in the care environment and improve outcomes. However, effective implementation of such change initiatives requires that the intention and the vision are clearly communicated to everyone at different organizational levels. Therefore, the proposed implementation of the mentorship program will be communicated to each stakeholder in time to enhance the chances of supporting it to help bring the required change (Bonawitz et al.,2020).

It will be important to help the nursing staff understand that the mentorship program can help solve the problem of burnout they have been experiencing. In addition, it will also be vital for the organization’s top leadership to understand the need for the mentorship program, embrace the program, and offer the necessary support needed for the program to succeed.

It is worth noting that challenges are expected when communicating, such as vision and trying to obtain buy-in. One of the greatest challenges is potential resistance by the nursing staff and other stakeholders. Mentorship programs may mean sparing some time during a normal day to attend the training and workshops for mentorship. There is a possibility of resistance since the staff may complain about their already tight schedules. Therefore, it will be important to explore strategies that can be used to ensure that such resistance is mitigated (Bonawitz et al.,2022).

For instance, the potential resistance can be reduced through presenting evidence of the importance of mentorship programs in dealing with problems such as burnout. It will also be important to obtain the support of the top leadership to use their influence and ensure that other staff support the proposed program. It is also important to share the vision and change with the stakeholders in time to increase or improve the chances of buy-in. The stakeholders need to feel that they are part of the program and that they have not been left out.

Conclusion

The organization has been experiencing various challenges, one of them being nurse burnout. Therefore, this assignment has focused on formulating a change initiative focused on implementing a mentorship program to help mitigate burnout. The program is expected to help nurses develop better coping strategies and resilience to help fight burnout. It is also expected that the stakeholders will embrace the proposed change initiative since it has the potential to improve the nurses’ ability to perform their roles and improve patient outcomes.

References

• Bonawitz, K., Wetmore, M., Heisler, M., Dalton, V. K., Damschroder, L. J., Forman, J., … & Moniz, M. H. (2020). Champions in context Which attributes matter for change efforts in healthcare? Implementation Science, 15, 1-10. Doi 10.1186/s13012-020-01024-9
• Cavanaugh, K., Cline, D., Belfer, B., Chang, S., Thoman, E., Pickard, T., & Holladay, C. L. (2022). The positive impact of mentoring on burnout Organizational research and best practices. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 28, 100521. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2022.100521
• Dignity Health (2022.). Dignity Health |Hello humankindness. https //www.dignityhealth.org/central-coast/medical-group/phc/about-us/mission-vision-values
• Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Singh, R. P., & Suman, R. (2022). Medical 4.0 technologies for healthcare Features, capabilities, and applications. Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems, 2, 12–30. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.iotcps.2022.04.001
• Jun, J., Ojemeni, M. M., Kalamani, R., Tong, J., & Crecelius, M. L. (2021). Relationship between nurse burnout, patient and organizational outcomes Systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 119, 103933. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103933
• Sullivan, V., Hughes, V., & Wilson, D. R. (2022). Nursing burnout and its impact on health. Nursing Clinics, 57(1), 153-169. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2021.11.011