Leadership and Management
Introduction
The aim of this assignment is to describe and discuss a management activity and the issues that emerged from it in relation to the delivery of patient care in my practice area. This management issue was about a change in ordering menus for patients and how it affected the dynamics of the ward. The proposal was that menus were to be ordered electronically and emailed to the kitchen. For purposes of confidentiality, and to comply with Part 5 of the Nursing and Midwifery’s Code of Conduct (2004), the name of my practice area has been omitted and subsequently any other names or places have been changed/ omitted. I will explore areas of development and then make recommendations for future practice.
My practice area is a forensic inpatient low enhanced secure unit with ages ranging from 21 to 65 years. It is evident that nutrition is important for the recovery of patient’s physical and mental states. Within the staff team, there is mix of skill on the ward, which made this proposal difficult because most of the staff are not computer literate and they would find it difficult to use the computer. The patient’s food is meant to be ordered 48 hours prior to delivery. For example, menus for Friday were to be done before 1600 hours on Wednesday. This posed a difficult task for three elderly women whom do find arduous to remember what they had ordered in the last two days. It was evident that this proposal was not inline with the Department of Health’s (DOH, 2009) initiative that nutrition of the elderly should be seen as priority by care providers. O’Regan (2009) echoes the same notion, stating that ensuring patients had adequate nutritional intake is part of the nurse’s role and it is supposed to be an important part of holistic care. The NMC (2008) also gives clear advice of the necessity of working with others to protect and promote the health and well being of patients. The proposed changes towards plan of care with regard to ordering of food
The aim of this assignment is to describe and discuss a management activity and the issues that emerged from it in relation to the delivery of patient care in my practice area. This management issue was about a change in ordering menus for patients and how it affected the dynamics of the ward. The proposal was that menus were to be ordered electronically and emailed to the kitchen. For purposes of confidentiality, and to comply with Part 5 of the Nursing and Midwifery’s Code of Conduct (2004), the name of my practice area has been omitted and subsequently any other names or places have been changed/ omitted. I will explore areas of development and then make recommendations for future practice.
My practice area is a forensic inpatient low enhanced secure unit with ages ranging from 21 to 65 years. It is evident that nutrition is important for the recovery of patient’s physical and mental states. Within the staff team, there is mix of skill on the ward, which made this proposal difficult because most of the staff are not computer literate and they would find it difficult to use the computer. The patient’s food is meant to be ordered 48 hours prior to delivery. For example, menus for Friday were to be done before 1600 hours on Wednesday. This posed a difficult task for three elderly women whom do find arduous to remember what they had ordered in the last two days. It was evident that this proposal was not inline with the Department of Health’s (DOH, 2009) initiative that nutrition of the elderly should be seen as priority by care providers. O’Regan (2009) echoes the same notion, stating that ensuring patients had adequate nutritional intake is part of the nurse’s role and it is supposed to be an important part of holistic care. The NMC (2008) also gives clear advice of the necessity of working with others to protect and promote the health and well being of patients. The proposed changes towards plan of care with regard to ordering of food
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