Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Name: Catherine Nwosu

Institution: Walden University

NURS 6053

Instructor: Dr. Townsley

Running head: DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES 1

Date: 12/27/2020

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Introduction

Healthcare is an important sector of society that is very intricate as it is vested to ensure that the community is healthy. Although healthcare organizations are business entities, just like any other organization, they have to operate and act according to the public's best interest and the code of ethics guiding healthcare organizations. Due to the privatization of the healthcare sector, since most organizations are privately owned, stakeholders need to ensure that they implement and put policies that will enable the organizations to stay afloat. Organizational leadership needs to be aware of competing interests that exist, especially in profit-based organizations. Their health practitioners and patients have varying needs to be satisfied (World Health Organization, 2016). Competing interests exist, and it is upon the management of organizations to develop policies that will enable them to avert these stressors' effects.

Two Competing Needs That Impacting Shortage of Healthcare Workers

The first competing need that impacts the shortage of healthcare practitioners in America, which results in a national healthcare stressor, is the population growth and high demand for healthcare services in America (World Health Organization, 2016). The patients seeking healthcare services from organizations are the main stakeholders in these organizations, and they require nothing less than quality services from healthcare organizations. Due to the population growth, the demand for medical services is rising to a level where the healthcare sector's current workforce cannot handle it. The growing population and demand for healthcare services are some of the factors contributing to the shortage of healthcare practitioners in organizations. The increase of patients in the organizations has strained the workforce that the healthcare organizations have, leading to burnout of the practitioners, increased workload, and fatigue leading to errors and mistakes that cause more harm than good.

The second competing need in the organization that I work in is the organization's need to cut the cost of operations to increase its income and improve the quality of services they offer to its patients. It is a fact that to have adequate resources, one has to pay for them, which applies to human resources. The more practitioners an organization need, the more it should be willing to spend on them. As mentioned earlier, healthcare organizations are private entities that aim to make as much profit as possible, which means they have to minimize operations costs (Drennan & Ross, 2019). Because employing more healthcare practitioners implies that the organization has to spend more on salaries and other employees' needs, they prefer not hiring as many practitioners, which results in a shortage of healthcare workers in the organization.

A Relevant Policy in My Organization Influencing an Increase of the Workforce

The shortage of healthcare practitioners is a real problem affecting my organization. The management has tried the put in place strategies to curb the adverse effects of this national healthcare issue. In my organization, there is a strategic plan for the next six-year. A policy provides setting aside some funds to hire extra nurses and other healthcare practitioners to help reduce the organization's staff shortage. the policy also has a condition of allowing unlicensed medical practitioners or medical students to work in the hospital as a measure of reinforcing the workforce in the organization, ensuring that there are enough human resources to handle the high demand that the organization is facing from the growing number patients flocking the facility on a daily basis. (Drennan & Ross, 2019) This policy ensures that the ratio of healthcare practitioners and the patient is convenient. The workload that the practitioners handle daily is manageable and encourages mindfulness in the workplace. Having a manageable workload reduces the burnout and fatigue among the healthcare practitioners hence improving the quality of services they offer to their patients resulting in desirable health outcomes.

Policy Critique

It is vital for any organization that is aiming at ensuring that it serves its patients the best way possible to have a strategic plan with policies that is manageable, sustainable, and applicable, in the policy that my organization has put in place in its strategic plan to ensure that it solves the problem of having a shortage of human resources (Anderson, 2019). This policy's downside is that the organization allows unlicensed practitioners to serve patients performing the same duties as the qualified health practitioner may affect the patients' health outcomes. When the organization does not make as much money as expected in its annual budget, it affects how it hires the extra workforce to supplement its workforce. An unlicensed workforce might come in handy as a supplementary human resource. Due to a lack of professionalism and experience, it might cause harm the patients by offering substandard services or care.

Although the policy has some downside, it has some strength and confers many benefits for the healthcare organization, its employees, and the patients. The employees' benefits are that they enjoy a manageable workload that reduces burnout due to the extra hands that the additional hires offer the team (Enoch, 2017). The organization also benefits as with adequate human resources; they can create manageable shifts for their practitioners, enhance job satisfaction, and reduce errors caused by fatigued workers who work long hours' shifts without breaks or off days. On the other hand, the patients enjoy adequate care and attention from the healthcare practitioners improving their recovery rate and health outcomes.

The policy also has some challenges that affect its effectiveness and how it is implemented, with the main challenge being the availability of funds. As mentioned earlier, the policy's success and the program are advocates for all depends on the number of profits that the organization can raise annually, which determines the amount of money it puts aside to support this program (Aithal & Aithal, 2017). Therefore, without enough financial resources, this policy can't be effectively implemented. The policy also has some ethical challenges, such as allowing unlicensed practitioners to operate and serve patients on the same level as licensed and qualified healthcare practitioners. The ethical difficulties might cause problems that can lead to legal issues with patients receiving substandard heal care services suing the organization.

Policy Recommendations for Balancing the Competing Needs of Resources, Workers, and Patients

As a way or a strategy of curbing this national healthcare issue of having workforce shortage in the country and in organizations, the policy recommendation that I would put across is the partnership of the healthcare sector or organizations with foundations and philanthropists, who share the view of ensuring that the healthcare services delivered to the society are of high quality. The reason behind recommending this policy is because when the organization or the healthcare sector works alone, there are a lot of things, they are unable to achieve due to insufficient resources. But with partners, it means they will have extra help and resources to help them attain their objectives (OECD netFWD, 2019). Having a healthy partnership with foundations and philanthropists such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who have shared an interest in making healthcare high-quality, affordable nod accessible, will provide findings to support health-related issues.

These foundations and philanthropists also fund scholarships and support medical students to ensure enough practitioners in the sector with qualifications and enough knowledge and skills to offer quality services to the people, hence reducing healthcare practitioners' shortage. The ethical shortcomings of the existing policies are that the healthcare organizations should dedicate its resources in ensuring that they provide quality services to its patients and not be centered on the profits it makes (Anderson, 2019). It is also an ethical shortcoming when organizations hire cheap unqualified labor to tend to their patients, which puts the lives of the patients at risk, which is unethical.

DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES 4

References

Aithal, A., & Aithal, P. S. (2017). Task-Shifting–An Alternative Survival Strategy for Healthcare Organizations. International Journal of Scientific Research and Modern Education (IJSRME), 2(2), 34-48.

Anderson, B. A. (2019). Facing the nursing workforce shortage: policies and initiatives to promote a resilient healthcare system. Caring for the Vulnerable, 363.

Drennan, V. M., & Ross, F. (2019). Global nurse shortages—the facts, the impact, and action for change. British medical bulletin, 130(1), 25-37.

Enoch, J. (2017). Healthcare leaders recognize 11 providers for developing frontline workers. National Fund for Workforce Solutions. Retrieved 8 March 2020 from https://nationalfund.org/news_post/healthcare-leaders-recognize-11-providers-for-developing-frontline-workers/

OECD netFWD (2019). Health and philanthropy, harnessing novel approaches for improved access to quality healthcare. OECD Development Centre, Paris. Retrieved 8 March 2020 from http://www.oecd.org/development/networks/2019_Health_policy_note.pdf

World Health Organization. (2016). Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030.