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Nursing, Pages: 2, Research paper

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Competing Needs Impacting Work Stress and Burnout

Work burnout and healthcare worker stress are driven by a mix of conflicting demands, i.e., a need for ongoing care of patients versus a need for worker health and cost containment in the organization versus investing in worker assistance activities. The more patient loads expand, the more healthcare practitioners are compelled to work longer hours in high-stress workloads, leading to worker fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and poor job performance (Izdebski et al., 2023). A care continuum is essential, though overloading staff with excessive workloads leads to lowered efficiency, increased medical error, and worker frustration. The conflict spirals into a high turnover and burnout cycle, draining the labour force and lowering care quality: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices.

Another essential conflicting requirement is cost management versus personnel care strategies. Many healthcare facilities have small budgets, including small new positions, reduced educational allowances, and little personnel wellness activities. Cost management is essential for cost-effectiveness, but cutting corners on personnel care speeds up burnout and increases turnover, recruiting expenses, and training expenses in the long term (Muir et al., 2021). The cost requirements versus personnel care conflict tends to push companies into short-term cost-cutting strategies that erode worker morale and overall quality care.

Relevant Policy

One central policy in our institution that impacts workforce burnout is its mandatory overtime policy, which compels healthcare personnel to work more than their contracted workloads to meet patient care demands. The policy is supposed to secure sufficient personnel coverage and mitigate interruptions in patient care, especially during personnel shortfalls (Waterfield & Barnason, 2022). Though resolving short-term gaps in personnel coverage, the policy subjects personnel to undue physical and psychological demands, resulting in increased rates of burnout, job dissatisfaction, and turnover.

From a moral standpoint, the mandatory overtime policy conflicts with some ethical principles, i.e., beneficence (the promotion of well-being) and nonmaleficence (the prevention of harm). Forcing overworked staff into additional work threatens worker well-being and poses additional patient care risks from fatigue-induced errors (Varkey, 2020). The policy also conflicts with fairness and justice principles because it discriminately affects frontline staff with minimal work schedule control. The policy ensures that care is not compromised at the expense of worker well-being and ethical work culture.

Recommend One or More Policy or Practice Changes Designed

To strike a balance between worker well-being and demands on patient care, our institution can move away from mandatory overtime towards a more flexible approach in terms of staffing. Using float pools, employment on a per diem basis, and cross-trained staff will enable us to plug gaps in shortfalls in staffing without overburdening full-timers. Predictive scheduling technologies can also predict fluctuations in patient loads and match staffing with these fluctuations, allocating workloads more evenly (Griffiths et al., 2020). Such measures will allow personnel to achieve a healthy work-life balance with continuing high-quality care.

Considering worker well-being to address fiscal limitations, the firm will move away from short-term cost-cut measures towards long-term worker-retention measures. Investing in mental health resources, worker wellness measures, and ongoing training opportunities can contribute towards job satisfaction and professional development, ultimately reducing turnover and turnover expenses. In addition, offering voluntary overtime pay as a reward over compulsory overtime can boost morale with adequate staffing (Bae, 2024). In undertaking these measures in our firm’s policies, we can facilitate a more ethical, more lasting and supportive work culture, with both workers and patient dividends.

References

Bae, S.-H. (2024). Nurse staffing, work hours, mandatory overtime, and turnover in acute care hospitals affect nurse job satisfaction, intent to leave, and burnout: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Public Health, 69(1607068). https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2024.1607068

Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J., Jones, J., Pattison, N., & Monks, T. (2020). Nursing workload, Nurse Staffing Methodologies & Tools: a Systematic Scoping Review & Discussion. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 103(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.103487

Izdebski, Z., Kozakiewicz, A., Białorudzki, M., Dec-Pietrowska, J., & Mazur, J. (2023). Occupational Burnout in Healthcare Workers, Stress and Other Symptoms of Work Overload during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2428. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032428

Muir, K. J., Wanchek, T. N., Lobo, J. M., & Keim-Malpass, J. (2021). Evaluating the Costs of Nurse Burnout-Attributed Turnover. Journal of Patient Safety, 18(4), 351–357. https://doi.org/10.1097/pts.0000000000000920

Varkey, B. (2020). Principles of Clinical Ethics and Their Application to Practice. Medical Principles and Practice, 30(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1159/000509119

Waterfield, D., & Barnason, S. (2022). The integration of care ethics and nursing workload: A qualitative systematic review. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13723

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Question

The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper. Module 1 and 2 are two separate papers

Module 2 Assignment

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly.

Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice.

Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization.

To Prepare:

  • Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
  • Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.

    Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

    Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

The Assignment (1-2 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:

  • Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
  • Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
  • Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
  • Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7days to provide you with quality feedback.

Required Reading

https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only

Note: Review all, with special attention to “Provision 6” (pp. 23–26).

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html

Textbook: