Inspection of Public Health Facility Reveals Safety Issues - Essay Sample

Introduction

The interview took place with the Department of Public Health on April 12th, 2017. During the inspection process, many issues were raised concerning the safety and security of patients, visitors, physicians, and staff within the facility. It was reported that there were no locks on the lobby door and front exit door as visitors would sometimes walk into the clinical areas of the facility. On some occasions, visitors would end up in front of procedure rooms. Additionally, the office of the director of nursing, which contains protected staff, patients, and physician's information had no lock. Besides, the interdisciplinary action taken by the health facility in addressing the issue was discussed. Collaborative efforts from nursing staff established that knowledge, experience, and expertise would make some corrections and improvements within the facility. After the discussion of safety and security, a proposal to improve the safety and security of the facility was presented to the Patient Care Committee and approved by the Medical Executive Committee on July 6th, 2017. The corrective action taken to improve the issue was installing combination locks in the office of the director of nursing and new magnetic doors in the lobby and clinical areas. Safety and security is an issue that affects public health and collaboration is necessary to address it.

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Issue Identification

The issue of safety and security raised in the interview required an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach. Lindfield, Knight, and Bwonya (2015) indicated that documenting and understanding safety practices in hospitals is vital in minimizing harm to patients. Safety and security in hospitals mean that patients and hospital staff do not receive aggression from visitors and their information is protected from unauthorized personnel. Reducing the risk of harm to patients is an interdisciplinary approach in addressing the safety and security of people in hospitals. Clinical intervention is needed to address the issue. The reason for the interdisciplinary approach is that the issue of safety and security within the hospital has been an issue for a long time and it is high time to protect patients, staff, and physicians from harm. The source used in this section is from a credible database, PubMed.

Change Theories That Could Result in an Interdisciplinary Solution

Change is essential in every health organization because it improves the quality of care. Change management theories can make interdisciplinary teams achieve specific organizational goals. Lewin's theory of change, the field theory, for example, has influenced organizational development. Batras, Duff, and Smith (2016) affirmed that Lewin's field theory can be incorporated into group dynamics to develop practical approaches that could be applied by health professionals to facilitate change. Lewin's approaches in the field theory incorporate action research, evidence-based practice, and a three-step model that includes (1) analyzing the current organizational situation, (2) identifying the range of possible solutions, and (3) finding the most appropriate solution (Batras et al., 2016). Undoubtedly, the field theory can help in creating an interdisciplinary solution by developing a proposal on how solutions can be attained. The field theory is relevant to the issue of safety and security because it involves a collection of different views of interdisciplinary teams to come up with different solutions on the safety and security in the hospital and coming up with one viable solution to deal with the issue. Besides, since the issue of safety and security is rampant in various hospitals within the health field, incorporating Lewin's theory would help to come up with a practical solution. In this scenario, a proposal was sent to the Patient Care Committee and approved by the Medical Executive Committee on July 6th, 2017. The corrective action taken by interdisciplinary teams was to install magnet doors on the lobby areas and combination locks in the office of the director of nursing to enhance safety and security within the facility. The source used in this section is from a credible search engine, Google Scholar.

Leadership Strategies That Could Result in an Interdisciplinary Solution

Leadership has to be involved in every step towards developing a solution to a problem. Most importantly, leadership strategies have to be utilized in the process of developing a solution. Kueny, Shever, Mackin, and Titler (2015) discussed the implementation of evidence-based practice through nursing leadership. According to the authors, evidence-based practice allows nurse leaders to make decisions based on findings from high-quality and rigorous research, clinical expertise, and patient perspectives (Kueny et al., 2015). Strategic leadership is needed to implement evidence-based practice to find a practical solution to a problem (Kueny et al., 2015). Additionally, the authors added that a supportive hospital culture supports interdisciplinary courses of action that can make changes happen (Kueny et al., 2016). Some of the leadership strategies that can create a supportive hospital culture and result in an interdisciplinary solution include communication at all levels of the hospital setting, focusing on staff satisfaction, and commitment to excellence. The strategies mentioned could result in an interdisciplinary solution to dealing with the issue of safety and security. The source by Kueny et al. (2015) is credible since it is from a trusted publisher, PubMed and Google Scholar, and provides worthwhile information on strategic leadership and the implementation of evidence-best practices.

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

For a collaborative approach to work, the leadership approach utilized has to be reviewed. Morley and Cashel (2017) indicated that research on collaborative processes in healthcare has proved to have benefits on safety and security. Also, the authors added that patient safety always depends on work environmental factors such as culture, teamwork, and learning (Morley & Cashel, 2017). Interdisciplinary teams are connected by shared goals, trust, and collaborative interdependency (Morley & Cashel, 2017). Besides that, in the collaboration process, interdisciplinary teams have to be aware of the intentions of the leader. For that reason, leaders have to employ transformational leadership to facilitate change within a healthcare organization. Sfantou, Laliotis, Patelarou, Sifaki- Pistolla, Matalliotakis and Patelarou (2017) indicated that transformational leadership creates a mutual relationship and elevation that brings aspirations to leaders and followers, eventually creating a transforming effect. Transformational leadership is accomplished by the actions of leaders. To ensure collaborative approaches are successful for interdisciplinary teams, leaders need to establish a commitment to their followers (Sfantou et al., 2017). This commitment incorporates the production of formal, progressing mechanisms that advance two-way correspondence and the exchange of ideas. Normally, leaders assume a significant job in maintaining and supporting their relationship with followers. Leaders discuss with their followers their values. Doing so may necessitate that leaders alter their leadership in acknowledgment of their follower's inclinations to create the collaborative result. Undoubtedly, collaborative efforts would ensure that the issue of safety and security in hospital settings is addressed effectively. The sources used in this section are credible from Google Scholar and talk about specific information on transformational leadership and collaborative approaches in interdisciplinary teams.

References

Batras, D., Duff, C., & Smith, B. J. (2016). Organizational change theory: implications for health promotion practice. Health Promotion International, vol. 21, issue 1. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dau098 [Google Scholar]

Kueny, A., Shever, L. L., Lehan Mackin, M., & Titler, M. G. (2015). Facilitating the implementation of evidence- based practice through contextual support and nursing leadership. Journal of healthcare leadership, 7, 29-39. doi:10.2147/JHL.S45077 [PubMed]

Lindfield, R., Knight, A., & Bwonya, D. (2015). An approach to assessing patient safety in hospitals in low-income countries. PloS one, 10(3), e0121628. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0121628 [PubMed]

Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in Health Care. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, vol.48, no. 2, pp. 2017-216. [Google Scholar]

Sfantou, D. F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A. E., Sifaki- Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of Leadership Style towards Quality of Care Measures in Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review. Healthcare, 5, 73; DOI:10.3390/healthcare5040073 [Google Scholar]