In any organization, change is a day to day activity which is inevitable. The change ensures quality and quantity increase and at the same time cost and errors are reduced to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. Change must be initiated, planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated to determine how effective it is and whether to bring another change or retain the current. In nursing and healthcare organizations, change is a common subject in the process of trying to deliver quality care to the patients. In these kinds of organizations, in most cases, change is introduced to improve quality and increase the level of satisfaction obtained by the patients. Healthcare organizations have adopted prearranged change which is explained as “purposeful calculated and collaborative effort to bring about improvements with the assistance of change agent” (L, 2006).
Medical expertise must provide care grounded on the existing evidence, which is a plan. Midwives must introduce change to ensure reduced mortality rate of delivering mothers and their newborns. Overall, the hospital must introduce planned change in certain areas of management, operations, and technology use. For change to be managed in a better way to reduce the level of resistance connected to the change, Lewin’s theory of change is the most appropriate to be applied in implementing and managing planned change. In this theory, the first change of implementing and managing change is unfreezing. In this process, the right environment is created (Marquis B, 2008). Nurses, doctors and all individual who are part of the change agent team are informed of the change and its benefits and aim. With the right communication done in the right manner and at the right time, the change manager obtains support from the other change agents. The next step follows which is moving. In this stage, implementation of change is carried out where every stakeholder of the nursing and healthcare organization is involved. After the change is introduced, follow up is done to ensure the people involved are used to the change and are comfortable with it (Marquis B, 2008). Incentives are also used to reward nurses and other medical experts that have played a significant role in ensuring the change has been successfully and smoothly implemented. This step is known as unfreezing (in Lewin’s theory of change).
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This change can be massive such that it affects patients, nurses, doctors, management and the administrators, and at the same time it can be minor such that it only affects one group in the organization. Regardless of the size of the change, proper management and implementation of the change must be employed to ensure attainment of the objectives connected to that change. I think for each change introduced in any nursing and healthcare organization, all the individual must be involved to provide their views on the change and make any suggestion which should be highly put into consideration. Areas within the healthcare sector that undergo change now and then are management, technology, human resource management and medical operations. For any change being introduced in this sector, it should be planned to ensure the right, and targeted objectives are attained.
References
L, R. (2006). Management and Leadership for Nurse Administrators. Fourth Edition . London : Jones and Bartlett .
Marquis B, H. C. (2008). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application . Philadhelphia PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins .
