Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal

Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal

Organizational Culture and Readiness

Change processes continue to underline healthcare operationalizations. Effective change management is critical to the success of diverse changes in healthcare. Likewise, organizational culture and readiness for change inform the rapidity of organizational uptake of the provisions of the change. This paper analyzes the organizational culture and readiness for the organization of a community inpatient hospital.

The Organizational Culture

The hospital’s culture is a blend of adhocracy and clan cultures. The culture within the organization highly supports change processes. The normative operationalizations and change adoption apparent within the organization reveal that the hospital staff is unified towards attaining organizational values, flexible to diverse healthcare innovations integral to patient care, and increased staff participation in various decision-making processes. The organizational leadership structure also demonstrates the hospital’s commitment to collaborative paradigms, as all healthcare cadres are involved in the management team and in decision-making processes. The organization’s mission, and vision continue to tailor the hospital towards incorporating innovative measures into its mainstream care and underlines their willingness to various innovative measures. The organization’s staff and leadership support interprofessional collaboration, as evident in their decision-making process, and fosters open communication between staff members by establishing multiple communication channels. The current work environment is healthy, as demonstrated by positive feedback from the organization. This further highlights the positivity of the hospital’s culture.

The Level of Readiness for Change

The Organizational Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC) is an example of an organizational readiness tool. ORIC is a 12-item tool that assesses the organization’s commitment and efficacy in implementing a specific program (Miake-Lye et al., 2020).  Assessment of the hospital’s level of readiness for change using the ORIC tool revealed the hospital had an average score of 4.0. The hospital staff showed a strong liking and commitment to implementing progressive changes within the organization. They also voiced their willingness to track the progress of the change, coordinate tasks that guarantee smooth implementation of the process, and manage the politics around the change. There were, however, some reservations about the staff’s ability to handle challenges that might arise with the change, with many stating that it is the leadership’s role to handle the challenges.

Strategies to Better Facilitate the Readiness for Change

Several strategies can be employed to better facilitate the organization’s readiness for change. Aggressive communication of the provisions of the change and its perceived benefits to the organizational members can enhance their readiness for change. It helps create excitement for the change process and creates a better buy-in into the change process (Vax et al., 2021). Engaging and empowering diverse stakeholders is also key. This can be attained by involving them in the planning and design stages, soliciting their feedback, and integrating their feedback into the process. Building the staff member’s skills and capabilities to adopt the change is also crucial, as this will create excitement for the change process.

The Degree to Which the Organizational Culture Will Support and Sustain the Change

The organization’s change culture is expected to enhance its adoption of the proposed program. Its effective leadership and supportive stakeholders considerably enhance change adoption within the organization. As Musaigwa (2023) reports, effective leadership is integral to a successful change process in healthcare. However, financial limitation is a potential barrier to implementing the change process. The organization does not have the finances required to implement the proposal. Notwithstanding, timing the proposal to coincide with its fiscal budgetary creation may allow for sufficient financial mobilization to facilitate the implementation process. External financial mobilization and cost savings through budget cutting in some clinical areas can help avail the required funds for the program.

Process and Systems for Improving Quality, Safety, and Cost-Effectiveness

Several processes and systems can be employed to improve quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness in healthcare. MacGillivray (2020) notes that quality and safety improvement in healthcare can be attained through patient-centered care approaches, integration of high-quality medical infrastructures, and maintaining staff competence in care delivery. By integrating continuous staff training programs, new healthcare technologies, and innovative healthcare approaches, care organizations can considerably optimize the clinical and healthcare outcomes of their patients while minimizing healthcare operationalization costs. This highlights the need to implement the new program within the hospital.

Stakeholders and Team Members for the Project

The project will draw diverse stakeholders, including nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and the hospital administration. Nurses, physicians, and pharmacists will coordinate the care transition process for patients through patient education, medication reconciliation, and care coordination. The hospital administration will fund the program.

Information and Communication Technologies Needed and How They Improve Nursing Practice

The implementation of the proposed program is heavily dependent on a working electronic health record (EHR) system. These systems facilitate a seamless and fast flow of patient’s health information, allowing various stakeholders to access this information whenever they need it (Luan et al., 2023). This system can be integrated into the setting through stakeholder education on its use and by making it available. EHR systems considerably improve nursing practice. They allow nurses to retrieve clinical information they need faster, facilitate more effective care coordination, and allow them access to more accurate clinical data (Luan et al., 2023). This highlights the need to implement such systems.

References

Luan, Z., Zhang, Z., Gao, Y., Du, S., Wu, N., Chen, Y., & Peng, X. (2023). Electronic health records in nursing from 2000 to 2020: A Bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1049411

MacGillivray, T. E. (2020). Advancing the culture of patient safety and quality improvement. Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, 16(3), 192. https://doi.org/10.14797/mdcj-16-3-192

Miake-Lye, I. M., Delevan, D. M., Ganz, D. A., Mittman, B. S., & Finley, E. P. (2020). Unpacking organizational readiness for change: An updated systematic review and content analysis of assessments. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-4926-z

Musaigwa, M. (2023). The role of leadership in managing change. International Review of Management and Marketing, 13(6), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.13526

Vax, S., Gidugu, V., Farkas, M., & Drainoni, M.-L. (2021). Ready to roll: Strategies and actions to enhance organizational readiness for implementation in community mental health. Implementation Research and Practice, 2, 263348952098825. https://doi.org/10.1177/2633489520988254

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

To successfully implement a change within an organization, the change agent must assess the organization’s culture and readiness for change.

In 750-1,000 words, analyze the culture and level of readiness of the organization for which your evidence-based practice project is proposed.

You will use the assessment of the organization’s culture and readiness in the Topic 8 assignment, during which you will synthesize the various aspects of your project into a final paper detailing your evidence-based practice project proposal.

Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal

Include the following:

Describe the organization’s culture and explain to what degree the culture supports change. Consider organizational and leadership structure, mission and values, interprofessional collaboration/team engagement, communication, perception of the organization by employees, etc.
Select an organizational readiness tool and assess the level or readiness for change within your organization. Identify the readiness tool and summarize the survey results.
Propose strategies to better facilitate the readiness of the organization.
Discuss the degree to which the organizational culture will support and sustain an evidence-based practice change. Consider strengths and weaknesses, potential barriers, stakeholder support, timing of the proposal, and resources.
Discuss what healthcare processes and systems you would recommend for improving quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness for the organization.
Identify the stakeholders and team members for the project. Include what their duties will be in the evidence-based practice project proposal.
Explain what information and communication technologies are needed for the implementation and how they will be integrated into the setting by the internal stakeholders.
Explain how these will help improve nursing practice and care delivery for individuals and populations for your intervention.
Refer to the “Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal – Assignment Overview” document, located in Class Resources, for an overview of the evidence-based practice project proposal assignments.