Workload Management

Workload Management

Nursing is one of the spheres, which require much attention in order to make the processes running within a healthcare system flexible enough to meet needs of every demanding client. It is not a random situation when managers at the hospital cannot apply effective measures to manage workload and satisfy the needs of every member of staff. The situation described involves several teams of staff, which also cannot find fairness in the distribution of resources streaming from top management. It is impossible to build an effective communication system between nursing personnel and a manager lacking information on how to bring balance back in the performance of the hospital. The main objectives of the research include team and hospital management, leadership, job satisfaction, and effective team building. Communications also constitute an essential part of the paper’s target. It is obvious that the chosen situation requires paying attention to the principles of the management system existing in the hospital. The discussion of transformations, which the hospital requires, will take place after the critical analysis of the case. It is necessary to see the essence of the challenge before putting appropriate solutions aimed at eliminating the problem.

First, it is important to examine the roots of the problem, which should be the basis for the decision-making process. The new manager at the hospital needs to make significant efforts to fix the mistakes of his predecessor. Due to the ineffective actions of the previous manager, the staff has lost trust in the fairness and effectiveness of managerial decisions. It means that there was a lack of communication between staff and their manager coordinating shifts, tasks, and teamwork. The lack of patience and loss of temper among nurses is an indicator of dissatisfaction with working conditions offered by a previous manager. Good listening skills should help to restore trust and communication between employees and the manager. In addition, regarding the problem of team building, there is a need to admit that a previous manager could not distribute available resources effectively without creating discomfort in the working atmosphere. These issues led to the irritation, inattention, as well as the lack of initiative and desire to work for the sake of the hospital development. It is possible to predict that hospital experienced some problems with the quality of health care services, which it should provide with an outstanding efficiency. As a result, it is possible to sum up the whole set of issues, which a current manager should solve to avoid the problem of workloads and its consequences in the future. It is necessary to work on employees’ satisfaction and resolve the issue of trust and communication. Moreover, a new manager should find out the most effective ways of defining roles among staff and improve the quality of health care services to the highest level. A problem-solving tool is the most appropriate measure, which a hospital should take to reduce the adverse effect of inappropriate management a former manager applied. The following discussion includes the most important aspects of the new program, which a manager should create to meet needs of every nurse.

It is crucial to apply a problem-solving tool in a systematic way, which will assist in solving challenges with an initiative. At the same time, this approach will help save hospital’s time and money and achieve the best results. The problem of workloads is one of the most widespread among Canadian hospitals (Ferguson-Paré & Bandurchin, 2010). However, it is vital to have a fresh view on the possible results to make the process of looking for solutions more effective. First, it is necessary to implement a system, which will count a ratio of patients and nurses. Furthermore, it is essential to create a balanced workload, resulting in comfort for nurses and their managers. This tool should involve actual data of the hospital’s performance, including available nurses and doctors, patient admissions, transfers, and other information on the activity of nurses. An effective software can help to produce an optimized system of nurses-to-patient rate without crossing the borders of the hospitals possibilities. Further, it is important to create teams of nurses, including different types of staff. Part-time, full-time, and casual staff should have an effective distribution applied by the manager to create a balanced system of roles and responsibilities (Virani, 2012). Moreover, it is inappropriate to switch employees from one team to another. On the contrary, it is important to build each team with an equal number of each segment of the staff. Patients should also have the same nurses and doctors taking care of them. Consequently, it will ensure patients that a health care professional is aware of their peculiarities, diagnosis, and the process of treatment. Otherwise, it would be impossible to provide clients with high-quality health care services. If the hospital faces a high percentage of patients, it may seem to the manager that there are not enough staff members to meet needs of every client. However, there is a solution to this problem as well as to the workload issue, in general. The delegation of tasks is the key to the effective managerial decisions when staff cannot process its common tasks with the same intensity due to the increased number of patients. In addition, it will restore trust and awareness of every member of the personnel. Roles and responsibilities of each member of the health care facility may increase. It is not a problem when managers do everything possible for their employees to get accustomed to a flexible system of performance.

Further, a problem-solving technique should touch upon the collaboration of staff within a team. Leadership and motivation can assist in solving this problem. For instance, a leader should show that every nurse should learn how to prioritize tasks. Completing the most important tasks at the beginning of the shift will help team members to finish their routine activity faster and with greater efficiency (Holden et al., 2011). In addition, mutual support of team members will contribute to the faster completion of the whole list of goals. The main problem of inappropriate workload is inequality existing in the distribution of resources and tasks among team members. It is the main factor leading to irritation among employees. Solving this problem will help to avoid misunderstanding and will increase trust between the manager and nurses.

Finally, it is crucial to remember that healthcare facility is a sphere of activity, which requires urgent decisions in certain cases. It is important not to lose flexibility, coordination, and overall response to the urgency in times when the hospital needs the support of every unit. Urgent surgeries and unpredictable situations should not break a team spirit of employees. To promote team support, it is necessary to provide staff members with training, which would teach them to operate with the same intensity in times of urgency. The manager’s role is not to break the rule of equality related to the workload but to create a plan involving urgent situations and actions of personnel aimed at resolving the problem quickly. In general, it is important to pay significant attention to planning. In particular, management should involve both long- and short-term planning to meet needs of the hospital and personnel. Furthermore, revision of plans should also become a routine activity of the manager, which will help to avoid fake data and mistakes in planning. In the process of planning, it is necessary to remember that the manager should involve nurses in the decision-making. As a result, it will enhance the accuracy of planning by considering the opinions of every employee. Moreover, regular meetings can help to collect the feedback of the staff regarding team performance, recommendations on further planning, and the overall idea of the managerial decisions. It will not only assist in avoiding problems with the workload but also improve trusting communication between staff and managers. Regular reports on the performance of nurses and other healthcare personnel can help to prevent the occurrence of mistakes in the distribution of roles and responsibilities among personnel. In addition, it should increase the overall experience of employees working in teams and responding to the requests of clients.

In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that a healthcare facility needs improvements and changes to meet needs of every employee. Benefits of the solutions are the best conclusion for the problem, which the hospital experiences. Optimization of workload has a variety of advantages, which managers will experience in case of improvement. First, it can help to forecast transformations in shifts of healthcare professionals due to the flexible system aimed at creating a balanced distribution of roles and responsibilities. Second, it assists in assigning patients to nurses and allows each shift to make an optimal decision according to the schedule. Furthermore, it will minimize the gap between available and required personnel. Third, employees do not need to guess in which team they will be in another shift. Assignment of patients, a delegation of tasks, autonomy will contribute to the avoidance of misunderstanding and the enhancement of mutual support. Moreover, regular meetings with staff will increase an overall awareness of personnel regarding mistakes and required steps to satisfy the needs set by both tactic and strategic planning. Finally, the described scenario will have its solutions with the help of the problem-solving technique applied by the manager every time personnel cannot figure out a conflict situation. Every part of the conflict will have its benefits and will continue a successful cooperation.

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