Consider an organization in your field or industry. Describe the essential systems necessary to facilitate continuous change without compromising quality or causing burnout among employees. Describe three factors to consider when making sure that the changes made become permanently embedded in the organization’s culture.
Change is common in most every organization and that includes the healthcare organization. New medical advances, changes in technology, global pandemics, nursing shortages, and financial struggles of healthcare organizations are all reasons for change. How can leaders accomplish these necessary changes to the systems without having a negative impact to quality of patient care and also protecting valuable workforce from burnout? This is a very important questions especially right now with the limited human capital available in healthcare organizations. Change must be initiated in an organized and systematic approach to give the best chance for success, minimize negative pushback and prevent employee burnout. First organizations must have a system in place to educate their teams on the need for and process of organizational change (Bellou & Chatzinikou, 2015). Associates must understand that change is a part of this industry and that the organization will train them and have clear communication on the process of change and how it will positively affect the organization. Second leaders must use an effective and proven change model like the ADKAR model to achieve success (Kachian, Elyasi, & Haghani, 2018). Training, Development, and clear honest communication with the teams is critical to build teams and support and maintain organizational change. Employees need to feel that they are being heard and trained appropriately by their leadership team. When they feel heard and supported and receive the appropriate training and development it improves job satisfaction which improves culture and decreases burnout, especially in times of change (Bellou & Chatzinikou, 2015). During time of change leaders should also proactively plan for a process to have short-term wins to maintain focus and build momentum. These short-term wins helps to re-invigorate the team and prevent burn-out during the change process. Continued communication and reinforcement helps to solidify change into organizational process.
In the world of healthcare, the only constant is change. Change is occurring often and adapting is key to promoting a positive environment for patients. This change can become taxing on employees when there is little to no consistency occurring in their day-to-day work lives. Leaders play such a vital role when facilitating constant change while preventing burnout. “Leadership and governance involve assurance that strategic policy frameworks exist and are combined with effective oversight, coalition-building, regulation, attention to system design, and accountability (Physiopedia, 2023, para 18).” They must update employees on the reason for the change and the plans going forward. This change will often be resented if employees feel they are not being heard or understood which is the first factor that must be considered. The next is staff engagement. Staff must feel a part of the change and the possible solutions going forward. Leaders must be willing to hear and implement helpful feedback when it is given to them by staff members. This factor step is to create unity among the staff and the leadership team. If the team feels as if they are one unit helping patients rather than individuals, the change will be more long-lasting and have a meaningful impact.
Reference
Physiopedia. (2023). Retrieved from https://www.physio-pedia.com/Health_Care_Systems
