Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly.

Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice.

Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization.

To Prepare:

• Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
• Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.

The Assignment (4-5 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following:

• Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
• Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
• Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
• Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.

Assignment that I did in module one:

Evidence-Based Practice and the Quadruple Aim

Misleydis Hernandez

Walden University

Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership

The connection between Evidence-Based Practice and the Quadruple Aim

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is an essential aspect that focuses on providing the most effective health care services and improving patients outcomes in health facilities. Its main objective is to enhance the health levels in a population by providing reliable information based on the evidence, experience, and expertise of a physician to assist patients in making a choice dependent on their values and preferences (Crabtree et al., 2016). The EBP is a significant strategy that helps clinicians to achieve the Quadruple Aim, which incorporates generating an improved patients’ experience and outcomes, lowering overall health costs, and enhancing the experience of physicians (Melnyk & Gallagher-Ford, 2019). EBP efficiently increases health care safety within a population, improves quality, decreases cost, and empowers clinicians to fully engage in daily healthcare delivery.

Evidence-based practice is dependent on scientific information to make appropriate decisions in a medical facility setup. It is attached to the management and policy formation as it incorporates specific preferences and evidence of patients’ values and expertise levels of clinicians to make decisions on proper care. Integration of the EBP in healthcare facilities positively impacts the processes and influences the achievement of the Quadruple Aims. Its adoption and development primarily improve the quality of healthcare services received by patients as it emphasizes inpatient care (Crabtree et al,. 2016). It also significantly impacts the experiences of a clinician by empowering them which makes them more productive.

EBP generally ensures the patient population receives quality and safe health care services. Since the EBP focuses on improved patient health outcomes, the patient experience is enhanced through the providence of quality health care services to all patients (Sikka, Morath, & Leape, 2015). The strategy has a positive impact on patient’s perception of services which leads to increased satisfaction with services offered during a visit to a medical facility. The patients get a chance to make choices and all medical decisions regarding an individual’s values and preferences which improve the relationship and trust between a patient and their health care provider.

Evidence-based practice in health care facilities is beneficial to population health as it creates ease in accessing high-quality information on health care and best medical practices. It ensures the development of effective preventive programs, empowers the medical workforce making public health more reliable (Sikka, Morath, & Leape, 2015). The strategy ensures that the health facilities offer the general population adequate information regarding proper health status, limitations, and benefits of personal health procedures evenly in the society.

Melnyk and Gallagher-Ford (2019) stated that one of the prevailing benefits of Evidence-based practices is lowering costs and creating a valuable outcome. The cost of all expenses in a health institution is greatly discounted through the adoption of the EBP in a facility. Although it is hard to provide high-quality health services at a reduced cost, the EBP strategy through the adoptive values and patient preferences takes a proactive step in finding a solution in providing high-quality and affordable care. Some of the feasible processes used in reducing costs include using less expensive drugs, reducing therapy cycles, adopting fewer doctor appointments, and reducing the use of supportive drugs.

The EBP positively impacts the work-life of healthcare providers, as it is used in developing interventions that ease cases of work exhaustion and dissatisfaction (Melnyk & Gallagher-Ford, 2019). The strategy facilitates improved processes that reduce the workload, creates a conducive working environment, hence generating supportive professional support and cooperation that significantly improves clinicians’ productivity.

References

Crabtree, E., Brennan, E., Davis, A., & Coyle, A. (2016). Improving Patient Care Through Nursing Engagement in Evidence?Based Practice. Worldviews on Evidence?Based Nursing, 13(2), 172-175.

Melnyk, B. M., & Gallagher-Ford, L. (2019). Achieving the Quadruple Aim in healthcare with evidence-based practice: A necessary leadership strategy for improving quality, safety, patient outcomes, and cost reductions. Evidence-based leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship in nursing and healthcare: A practical guide to success, 125-144.

Sikka, R., Morath, J. M., & Leape, L. (2015). The quadruple aim: care, health, cost, and meaning in work.