Application: Systems Theory

When I joined the Air Force in 1992, my initial goal was to serve only four years that extended to 2o years with many great rewarding experiences.  The military culture is a unique organization in its own ways such as its mission, vision, strategic planning, and military community lifestyle.  The current organization primary mission is to Treat- Teach -Train. That being said, its mission is based on deployment platforms and a teaching hospital. The organization trains physicians in graduate medical, educational programs which are integrated with a local state university school of medicine. The organization also has a stand-alone training program for nurses, technicians, dental hygienists and other types of healthcare providers just to name a few.

With the recent military personnel force reduction last year, the organization is now considered to be the third largest regional Air Force teaching hospital. Airmen from the medical center provided patients with a full range of health nursing and medical care services, ranging from newborns, laser eye surgery to comprehensive cancer care and frequently provide deployed medical support around the globe. Although there is no single definition of organization culture, Bellot (2011) defines organizational culture as of shared values and beliefs that govern how people behave in groups. Also, the military’s culture of an organization provides guidelines and boundaries that help the staff to know and to perform their jobs correctly for accountability. Besides, the culture of the military organization is so deep-rooted in the behavior of the airmen that there is cohesiveness of being mission ready.  Whereas, when a non-military member observed the military’s culture it is perceived as being too firm and involved, and the organization is very difficult to follow through. Thus, the culture can be thought of as 'personality' driven by the influence of the organization (Bellot, 2011).

Furthermore, the culture and climate of the organization can be constant or fluid depends on the seasonal change in new leadership every two to four years related to relocating to another military base installation or transitioning to civilian. Whereas, the new inbound leadership style can have a positive or negative effect on upper and lower management and staff within the organization (Marqui & Huston, 2012). For example, when the organization receives a new hospital medical group or base wing commander. The staff will have an opportunity to complete a culture and climate assessment survey that measured and compared the attitudes and perceptions of hospital staff toward a broad range of culture-related issues. As a result, the surveys are provided an insight the need for change in our military culture due to internal and external influences. NURS 6053-10

Overall, the role of the nurse leader is to lead by example and to support the mission, vision, and values of the Air Force core values: integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do. The goal is to pull the team to together to be in align with the organization’s values’ (Nelson & Gardent, 2011). Also, when I think of the roles and responsibilities of a nurse leader, who plays a significant role in advocating for nursing standard of care and patient-nurse relations via “interpersonal collaboration” comes to mind (ANA, 2015).  Also, nurse leaders need to communicate clearly and concisely and to structure their ideals strategically in line with the organization’s mission and goals (ANA, 2015).  Together with nurse frontline managers and clinical leaders, and nurse informatics leaders help set the organization’s direction and goals. In addition, these teams strive for consistent practices and accountability across an organization

References

American Nurses Association, (2015). Code of ethics. 

            Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/Mobile/Code-of-Ethics

Bellot, J. (2011). Defining and assessing organizational culture. Nursing Forum, 46(1),

             29–37. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Nelson, W. A., & Gardent, P. B. (2011). Organizational values statements. Healthcare

Executive, 26(2), 56–59.  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2012). Leadership roles and management functions in

             nursing: Theory and application (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.).

 Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.