RKT Task 1

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Organizational Systems & Quality Leadership|
RKOT Task 1|
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By: Myrtle Howard, RN|
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B. Leadership Strategies:
Leadership is a very important role as a nurse. One strategy that enables a nurse on an interdisciplinary team to exert leadership without occupying a formal leadership position is being a problem solver. Effective problem solving is indispensable to leadership. Problems arise from every aspect of healthcare such as patients, staff, and other medical personnel. Identifying and resolving problems ensures quality care and outcomes. Being a problem solver also gains the trust of the staff, colleagues, and patients, providing knowledgeable information and resources. Another strategy that enables a nurse
on an interdisciplinary team to exert leadership without occupying a formal leadership position is being a delegator. To delegate, the nurse need to be knowledgeable of each one of the staff’s role and job description, ensuring patient safety. Being a delegator is a huge responsibility and requires leadership. Setting priorities and goals to ensure a quality and safe outcome, is important within an interdisciplinary team. As a delegator, the nurse plan and evaluate the outcomes, providing briefings and updates on patient’s status and problems. Moreover, there are formal and informal positions in leadership. As a nurse, leadership is a major role within an interdisciplinary team, providing knowledge and accomplishing goals.
C. Active Involvement:
It is important for the nurse to be involved with an interdisciplinary team. The nurses are at the forefront of patient care, being advocates. As an advocate, the nurse is the patient’s voice, corresponding with other medical personnel, such as the physicians, case managers, social workers to ensure patient needs are being addressed. Being actively involved with an interdisciplinary team ensures patient safety and quality outcomes. Within an interdisciplinary team, every individual has a role to fulfill. Asses, plan, implement, and evaluate is the role of the nurse, providing essential baseline data in guiding care which is very important within an interdisciplinary team.
C1. Contributing Position:
One way a nurse can take an active contributing position within an interdisciplinary team is communication.
Communication is a very important factor within an interdisciplinary team. In order to provide quality and safe care to patients, the nurses correspond and collaborate with the staff and other healthcare personnel. Nurses are constantly updating physicians and reporting to fellow nurses the patient progress and status. Communicating frequently, exchanging information and providing feedback creates a safe working environment that is not only critical to staff, but also to the patient. Overall, effective communication leads to goal achievement. Another way a nurse can take an active contributing position within an interdisciplinary team is providing quality patient care, utilizing the nursing process: assess, diagnose, plan, implement, and evaluate. The nursing process is an ongoing contributing factor within patient care; therefore, is essential to an interdisciplinary team. The nurses critically think to resolve problems using creative, logical, and analytical processes. Data from the nursing process guides the direction of patient care, promoting quality outcomes. Within an interdisciplinary team, the nurse is constantly performing evaluation of outcomes and revisions, updating team members of patients’ status and plan of care. Moreover, utilizing the nursing process when providing patient care is indispensable to an interdisciplinary team; Because of this, nurses are
promoting positive outcomes and goal achievement.
D. Culture of Safety:
Creating a safe environment in the healthcare setting is imperative to quality patient care.
In order to provide safety, it demands an effort of the entire facility as a whole. As stated in the IHI Open School Basic Modules, the four main characteristics are “psychological safety, active leadership, transparency, and fairness”. I would create a safe environment in the healthcare setting by addressing any concerns the patient and/ or staff may have, being respectful and open-minded. I would create an open door policy, promoting communication and offering knowledge to ensure quality care and patient safety. If a mistake or error was made, I would help the individual in resolving the situation to ensure patient safety first as well as documenting the incident and focus on methods of prevention with the staff. For example, if a nurse approaches me with a question on how to insert an NG tube, I will not belittle the person or make smart remarks because doing so will create a harmful environment. Instead, I would offer my assistance and knowledge to ensure patient safety. Afterwards, to ensure competency and confidence of staff, I wound coordinate a mandatory in-service on NG tube insertion and placement. As an active leader, I would actively listen to my staff, addressing their questions and concerns. As a leader, I must realize that individuals are different and have different perspectives and/or beliefs about certain issues and the only way to know that is to listen. In my
opinion, this is a major downfall in the healthcare setting. If you understand and know your staff, you will know their work ethics and abilities to care for patients. Respect is another key to being an active leader. In order to work as a team, there has to be respect. I want my staff to feel that they are important regardless of their title, whether you are a nurse or a housekeeper. All jobs are equally important. For an example, without housekeeping infection control would be a critical issue, putting patient safety at risk. Transparency promotes education and prevention. Investigating errors and informing staff and others will help in preventing future mistakes and can be a learning tool for others in the healthcare setting. If healthcare facilities make society aware of mistakes and errors due to unsafe practices in the healthcare setting, this will force other facilities to examine their protocol and practices of their staff to ensure patient safety. For an example, a nurse gave an adult dose of heparin to an infant causing death. As an administrator, I would make this error be known to all facilities because unfortunately, these are common mistakes that are being made daily in healthcare settings. Overall, awareness and prevention is the key to patient safety. Fairness promotes honesty and accountability. As a leader, I would address errors and mistakes with fairness, differentiating between human errors, at risk behavior, and reckless behavior. Sometimes, the blame is not just on one person, but the organization as a whole, especially if the error was system base. “In Marx’s model, organizations and their staff share accountability. The organizations are accountable for designing systems in a way that supports and promotes safe choices by staff. Meanwhile, staff are accountable for the quality of their choices within that system” (IHI Open School Basic Modules). Overall promoting fairness when dealing with errors in the healthcare setting will promote honesty, ensuring accountability and appropriate disciplinary actions.

Sources
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. IHI Open School Basic Modules: What is Cultural Safety? www.IHI.org[->0]. 2011; Accessed September, 2012.

[->0] - http://www.IHI.org