Essay NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG

NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG

Strategic Plan: Improving Nurse Retention in Hospitals

Introduction

NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG

When talking about healthcare and the importance of having a good foundation in a hospital the role that would fill that space would be a nurse. In a hospital setting a patient will only come in contact and speak to a nurse and that is guaranteed when being treated, and this is because the nurses are the pillar and foundations when in a hospital setting. Doctors are key roles in a hospital setting but the nurses role has more in-contact with the patient’s whom the doctor’s order the treatment for. Nurses carry out the order the doctors give, even then the treatment, vital signs, symptoms, and any other information a nurse gives are doctor are what draws the doctor to order treatments and prescriptions. 

That is why when we speak of the importance of short term to long term goals, nurse retention will always be a goal that needs to continuously be modified, seen, and met. Mercer University developed and article about the importance nurses are to the medical feild and mentioned the same example I was conveying, “After the doctor saw you, the nurse likely returned to talk through any medications the doctor prescribed and to ask if you had any additional questions before helping you check out. (Mercer ASBN,2021)”. Nurses are the pillar of hospitals providing care, advocacy, and service to patients. The same article by Mercer University stated, “American Nurses Association lists advocacy as a “pillar of nursing” and considers it one of the most significant reasons why nurses are important in healthcare (Mercer ASBN, 2021).”

NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG

Strategic Planning 

For creating goals in a hospital setting such as short term and long term goals for organizations like hospitals, the best way to go about it is to create a strategic plan that is based on all aspects of healthcare and the world around healthcare. Improving nursing retention in hospitals and health care facilities can greatly improve their quality of care. ABC Health Clinic is a relatively small clinic although having all departments needed for their area, such as emergency department and sub acute department. In this small clinic the staff see and take care of a lot of patients which seem to result in a high nurse to patient ratio. ABC Health also doesn’t have any benefits or a non-competitive salary which causes a lot of nurses to move to other medical facilities that can meet more of their needs. ABC Health clinic’s emergency department has the highest nursing retention rate in their clinic from a high percentage of 95%. This high retention rate within the ABC Health Clinic emergency department is a blueprint to what the entire ABC Health Clinic nurse retention rate goal should and aspires to be. The ABC’s ED nursing management leader was one of the first nurses who have worked in the ED when it first opened and is now in charge of the ED. Management thoroughly expresses the importance of communication and teamwork within the department, especially with the importance of this department for the patients. The staff in the ED have regular team meetings, practice consent communication, and nurse to patient ratios are fair. This on top of the fact that their pay in the ED department is not that far off from the other ED departments in their area. This is due to the fact that the nurses receive a raise every time they receive a certificate that is relevant to their job descriptions. These are the main reasons the nurses retention rate is so high in the ED. 

Essay NURS FPX 6021 Assessment 3 Quality Improvement Presentation Poster GCU

The common issue in the ABC Health Clinic and other departments is that most nurse’s reason for leaving is that they have found other facilities where the pay is higher or they have better benefits for the same job title and the same work. Finding nurses to apply to work at ABC Health is also quite difficult due to word of mouth recommendations against the clinic or for working at other facilities. 

When applying the SWOT method which intails finding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the facility an analysis can be made to see where can the clinic improve on to making the nursing retention higher. Once we have used the analysis tool with the ABC Health Clinic we can devise a short and long term goal to establish a plan to raise the rate of nurse retention. 

For this facility we have conducted one long term goal and two short term goals in order to establish a well devised plan to increase nurse retention rates. The long term goal is to mimic the nurse retention rate the ED has, to all departments with a minimum nurse retention rate of 80%. The short term goals will involve the accounting departments and the board of the clinic in order to increase the bonuses/referral bonuses and increase the amount of positions within the clinic to stabilize and shorten the nurse to patient ratio. 

The hope is to accomplish our long term goal within the range of 5 to 10 years. The short term goals should be accomplished within 6 months to a year. To reach these goal marks we must make sure the following is addressed and taken care of:

1. Working with the necessary departments including the accounting and board to establish a plan regarding the bonus plans. 
2. Promote teamwork and communication within department leaders by department leaders.
3. Decreasing patient to nurse ratio.

NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG

The short term goals that have been discussed will help the long term goals prevail due to the fact that the short term goals help keep the nurses interests and needs of payment and increase of bonuses. Once the nurses throughout the clinic start receiving similar pay of other nurses in the area the nurse retention rate will hopefully start to increase. The long term goal is not possible without the short goals prevailing and being accomplished.

Strategic Goals Outcomes

The goals have already been discussed and mentioned before. The short term goals of this strategic plan is to work with the accounting and board to establish a plan involving bonuses and referral bonuses as well as decreasing the patient to nurse ratio by hiring more nurses. The long term goal being raising the nurse retention rate. Collaboration between the accounting department and the board will be needed to accomplish the first short term goal. And technology can help us with the second short term goal of hiring new nurses. Using online applications can help the process be faster and more efficient for the Director of Staff Development. Online applications can be easily stored, looked through, and traced. Technology can be a great asset with our goals as well. Conducting an online survey with our nurses can also help us see where our improvements can be made in order to raise retention rates. 

Leadership and Healthcare Theories

In order for our long term goal of nurse retention rate to be accomplished the leadership and leaders should be revised and taught what good leadership should be accepted of them as leaders. Leaders must be skilled to work together with their team, communicate with their team, empower, inspire, and create a healthy work environment (Carlow University, 2022). Modifications and significant changes must be made within the other departments in order to resemble the leadership style of the emergency departments which is the ideal model for this plan. 

NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG

Transformational leadership style must be made throughout the clinic in order for the long term goal of raising the nursing retention of the clinic. “Transformational leadership is a leadership style in which leaders encourage, inspire and motivate employees to innovate and create change that will help grow and shape the future success of the company. This is accomplished by setting an example at the executive level through a strong sense of corporate culture, employee ownership and independence in the workplace. (Sarah K. White, 2018).” This is the type of leadership the ABC Health Clinic needs to establish in order for changes to be seen. Using this leadership style increases team work, collaboration, communication, and trust within the nurses and their leaders without needing the leader to micromanage the team and trusting them to get the job done but also be by the team’s side for advice and guidance. 

Conclusion

The nurse retention rate we have sampled from the ABC Health Clinic emergency department and have implemented into all departments of the clinic shows that nurses will stay with a department and facility if the incentives are there for them to receive. By establishing a plan and goals to increase nurse retention by increasing the nurse satisfaction was best for the clinic. Using the SWOT analysis we figured out their strength was their ED and their weakness was not being able to implement the same ideals of leadership, communication, and payment incentives throughout their departments. The community itself can trust the clinic, including the nursing staff, to stay and take care of their health care issues now that the facility has improved their nurse retention rate and their patient to nurse ratio which allows the patients to receive the best of care and for the nurses to be paid fairly for their work. 

References 

Qualities of an effective nurse leader: Carlow university online. cartux. (2021, October 28). Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://online.carlow.edu/resources/article/effective-nurse-leader-qualities/

White, S. K., & Writer, S. (2018, February 21). What is transformational leadership? A model for motivating innovation. CIO. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.cio.com/article/228465/what-is-transformational-leadership-a-model-for-motivating-innovation.html

NURS FPX 6210 Assignment 2 Attempt 2 Strategic Planning KG