Stress In Nursing Home Essay
Stress of Caring at Parkway Nursing Homes Parkway Nursing Care is going through a difficult time. With the increase in demand of patient care services and the new government policy for healthcare institutions, the organization is having a difficult time with severing the increased number of patients. This report will focus on the type of changes that need to done to reduce the stress leave of employees and increase their work performance. This report will also suggest methods on reducing stress among employees and how people in leadership positions can also reduce stress levels.
Findings
According to the data provided by researchers, states that employees’ injuries, absences and turnover rates over the years increased tremendously. There …show more content…
are several reasons for concern about the company’s direction. One of those reasons for concern is employee’s injuries. Individuals in the healthcare field is requires to be physically fit. They are require to lift and transport clients or patients in all shapes and sizes (Robins &Judge, 2013). This can cause back, arm, shoulder and neck injuries. Another reason for concern is employee’s absentees. There are several causes that would force an employee to be absent from the job. Those causes can be physical health and stress. Physical heath is one reason a nurse would be absence from the job. This is reason is when an employee gets injured while caring for clients. Organizations need to instruct their staff on techniques, such as lifting techniques, on how to properly care for clients without causing injuries to themselves and others (McVicar, 2015). Stress factors can also lead to employees’ absence on the job. When employees do not have balance work or personal life can lead to a stressful life. Lastly, the increase of the organization turnover rate is another reason that can cause concern for the company’s direction. The turnover rate of an organization is nothing but when an employee leaves an organization to go to another organization (Turnover, 2011). This can be a huge headache for the organization because they have to use resources to replace employees so the company can continue to run smoothly. There are several reason why someone may leave an organization. The most common reason is the pay. When individuals receive a higher pay offer form a different organization they often accept that offer unless they are committed to that previous employer.
Forms of Resistance
Every organization goes through changes within their company to make it better. There would be several employees that would be resistance to those changes. One common form of resistance at Parkway is staffing. Base on employee statements, staffing is a big problem within the company (Robins &Judge, 2013). A way to solve this problem, Parkway needs to increase the number of nurses that they have at each facility. The senior staff at Parkway would most likely to resist to this change. The senior staff may fear of being replaced by new nurses.
Another form of resistance is the new policy set by the government, which is based on new rules and regulation in the healthcare field. The new policy requires all documentation be entered electronically to avoid cases of inappropriate billing and cover up of patient abuse (Robins &Judge, 2013). Not every nurse at Parkway is technology suave and those who is not prefer to use a pen and paper to document their results would be more likely to reject to this change.
Lastly, the amount of patients at Parkway facilities is another form of resistance that arises. Parkway main focus is to keep and fill the beds at each facility (Robins &Judge, 2013). The management need to limit patients so they can be properly taken care of by licensed nurses. The management teams would oppose to this change because they fear the income will reduce when there are less beds filled.
Overcoming Resistance To overcome resistance, Parkway can use Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for Implementing Change (Robins &Judge, 2013, p. 584). The first step is increase urgency. This means to establish a sense of urgency by creating a compelling reason for why change is need. It would also provide job security to all nurses. The second step is build the guiding team. This means to form a coalition with enough power to lead the change. The third step is get the vision right. This means to create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision. The fourth step is to communicate. This means to communicate the vision throughout the organization. The fifth step is the empower action. This means to empower others to act on the vision by removing barriers to change and encouraging risk taking and creative problem solving. The sixth step is to create a short-term win. This means to plan for, create and reward short-term “wins” that move the organization toward the new vision. The seventh step is not letting up. This means to consolidate improvements, reassess changes and make necessary adjustments in the new program. The last step is to make the change stick. This means to reinforce the change by demonstrating the relationship between the new behaviors and organizational success.
Advice on Leadership Strategy After carefully analyzing the situation at Parkway, it is safe to say that the organization needs to have a new outlook of leadership within the company. In order to implement a new leadership strategy one must know the definition of a leader. A leader is an individual who has a vision, a drive and a commitment to achieve that vision and the skills to make it happen (Leadership, 2011). A leader can come in all shapes and sizes. There are different styles of leadership and management. These different styles depend on leader’s culture, belief and preferences (Styles, 2011). There are three types of leadership styles that Parkway should inquire at their facility. The first leadership style is an autocratic leader. Autocratic leaders are those who set goals and do not allow others to make any decisions. A participative leader has the ability to make others realize the importance of attaining goals. The third leadership style is situational leadership. A situational leader has the ability to take and change decisions according to the demand of the situation.
There are several characteristics that define a great leader. One characteristic is the ability to inspire people to give their best. Another characteristic is an individual that have good communication skills and know who to involve others in decision making. The most important characteristics of a good leader is an individual that has the ability to delegate and empower people while keeping an eye on what has to be achieved and the ability to stand back from the day to day action.
Leader Behavior of Directors A director at Parkway should have a behavior to motivate each nurse that is employed. Most nurses are coming for different generations. Directors should become good motivators, by giving constant feedback on the nurses’ performance. Directors also have to have great communication skills. Communicating with the nursing staff can be a start of a good working relationship between the employer and employees. With great communication skills, nurses will feel assured when they hear from their management team. Lastly, directors should be encouraging. When leading a team or organization giving encouragement to subordinates is very important because it gives on the psychological effect (Leadership, 2011).
Leader Behavior of Nursing Supervisors A nursing supervisor should have the ability to motivate their staff to perform better under different situations. They are able to help staff to understand how to handle conflict and follow with appropriate disciplinary actions when necessary (Leadership, 2011). This would solve all kinds of misunderstanding between staff. Nursing supervisors also have to be able to manage working shifts of all nursing staff or their team. They are also reasonable for asking senior staff to train and motivate new staff so they can fit in with the organization. This has make the new staff feel more at ease when someone in the same position to help them learn about the organization policy and procedures.
Major Sources of Stress Stress can come in forms of emotions and physical tension.
Stress can affect the body and mind when someone is under a large amount. Stress can also lead to a mental breakdown when it gets out of control. There are four major sources of job stress at Parkway, which are environmental, personal, workplace and emotional stress. Environment stress is a response to thing that goes on around them that causes stress. These can be frustrations, such as, noise, crowding, pressure from work or family and disorganized environment (Environment, 2010). Despite these frustrations are small, they can trigger an individual stress level. Personal stress is when an individual is not happy in a particular environment (Environment, 2010). Personal stress can also occur when individuals have major changes in life like divorce, death or illness of a family member or close friend, having a baby and attending college. Workplace stress occurs when demand of work increase and employees do not have the resources to handle or complete the demand (Chung, 2011). When employees feel overwhelmed from job duties can lead to physical and emotional stress. This source of stress can lead to employees’ absentee, workplace accidents, injuries and turnovers (Chung, 2011). Emotional stress occurs when employees found situations difficult or challenging. Emotional stress is self-created and is difficult to understand and manage (Chung, 2011). When individuals cannot control their emotions, emotional stress factors get worse and harder to solve the problem that cause the
stress.
All of these sources of stress can cause damage to a person body. Stress can cause high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat and blood clots (Chung, 2011). Stress is also linked to heart attacks and heart failure. According to (Environmental, 2010), to minimize the stress level, employees need to remember the acronym ‘STOP’. The ‘s’ stands for stop, which means clear your thoughts and focus on the problem. The ‘t’ stands for think, which means the employee identifies the solutions in detail. The ‘o’ stands for organize, which allow the employee to develop a step-by-step plan after looking at the options. Lastly the ‘p’ stands for precede with the plan, which the employee is able to be flexible and make adjustments to their plan when necessary.
Stress Management Plan
There are several ways to reduce stress at Parkway. Professionals use stress management training to teach nurses how to control stress. Some exercises professionals use are physical exercise training, relaxation training and improvement of social life training (Styles, 2011)). Though physical exercise, the physical health of nurses is the most important factor. When a nurse fitness level is high, they are more energetic to do their day to day work duties. Nurses have busy schedules and never have time to relax. Though relaxation training, it teaches nurses how to relax. This gives nurses the opportunity to refresh their emotions before returning back to work. Lastly, improvement of social life training is a great stress reliever. When nurses are able to make friends and attend social events will reduce stress.
Conclusion
With the growing need for specialized healthcare institutions, Parkway needs to change with the demand to continue to be successful. Parkway need to implement training classes to teach their staff how to handle stress and their physical health. This would reduce Parkway employees’ injuries, absences and turnover rates.
Findings
According to the data provided by researchers, states that employees’ injuries, absences and turnover rates over the years increased tremendously. There …show more content…
are several reasons for concern about the company’s direction. One of those reasons for concern is employee’s injuries. Individuals in the healthcare field is requires to be physically fit. They are require to lift and transport clients or patients in all shapes and sizes (Robins &Judge, 2013). This can cause back, arm, shoulder and neck injuries. Another reason for concern is employee’s absentees. There are several causes that would force an employee to be absent from the job. Those causes can be physical health and stress. Physical heath is one reason a nurse would be absence from the job. This is reason is when an employee gets injured while caring for clients. Organizations need to instruct their staff on techniques, such as lifting techniques, on how to properly care for clients without causing injuries to themselves and others (McVicar, 2015). Stress factors can also lead to employees’ absence on the job. When employees do not have balance work or personal life can lead to a stressful life. Lastly, the increase of the organization turnover rate is another reason that can cause concern for the company’s direction. The turnover rate of an organization is nothing but when an employee leaves an organization to go to another organization (Turnover, 2011). This can be a huge headache for the organization because they have to use resources to replace employees so the company can continue to run smoothly. There are several reason why someone may leave an organization. The most common reason is the pay. When individuals receive a higher pay offer form a different organization they often accept that offer unless they are committed to that previous employer.
Forms of Resistance
Every organization goes through changes within their company to make it better. There would be several employees that would be resistance to those changes. One common form of resistance at Parkway is staffing. Base on employee statements, staffing is a big problem within the company (Robins &Judge, 2013). A way to solve this problem, Parkway needs to increase the number of nurses that they have at each facility. The senior staff at Parkway would most likely to resist to this change. The senior staff may fear of being replaced by new nurses.
Another form of resistance is the new policy set by the government, which is based on new rules and regulation in the healthcare field. The new policy requires all documentation be entered electronically to avoid cases of inappropriate billing and cover up of patient abuse (Robins &Judge, 2013). Not every nurse at Parkway is technology suave and those who is not prefer to use a pen and paper to document their results would be more likely to reject to this change.
Lastly, the amount of patients at Parkway facilities is another form of resistance that arises. Parkway main focus is to keep and fill the beds at each facility (Robins &Judge, 2013). The management need to limit patients so they can be properly taken care of by licensed nurses. The management teams would oppose to this change because they fear the income will reduce when there are less beds filled.
Overcoming Resistance To overcome resistance, Parkway can use Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for Implementing Change (Robins &Judge, 2013, p. 584). The first step is increase urgency. This means to establish a sense of urgency by creating a compelling reason for why change is need. It would also provide job security to all nurses. The second step is build the guiding team. This means to form a coalition with enough power to lead the change. The third step is get the vision right. This means to create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision. The fourth step is to communicate. This means to communicate the vision throughout the organization. The fifth step is the empower action. This means to empower others to act on the vision by removing barriers to change and encouraging risk taking and creative problem solving. The sixth step is to create a short-term win. This means to plan for, create and reward short-term “wins” that move the organization toward the new vision. The seventh step is not letting up. This means to consolidate improvements, reassess changes and make necessary adjustments in the new program. The last step is to make the change stick. This means to reinforce the change by demonstrating the relationship between the new behaviors and organizational success.
Advice on Leadership Strategy After carefully analyzing the situation at Parkway, it is safe to say that the organization needs to have a new outlook of leadership within the company. In order to implement a new leadership strategy one must know the definition of a leader. A leader is an individual who has a vision, a drive and a commitment to achieve that vision and the skills to make it happen (Leadership, 2011). A leader can come in all shapes and sizes. There are different styles of leadership and management. These different styles depend on leader’s culture, belief and preferences (Styles, 2011). There are three types of leadership styles that Parkway should inquire at their facility. The first leadership style is an autocratic leader. Autocratic leaders are those who set goals and do not allow others to make any decisions. A participative leader has the ability to make others realize the importance of attaining goals. The third leadership style is situational leadership. A situational leader has the ability to take and change decisions according to the demand of the situation.
There are several characteristics that define a great leader. One characteristic is the ability to inspire people to give their best. Another characteristic is an individual that have good communication skills and know who to involve others in decision making. The most important characteristics of a good leader is an individual that has the ability to delegate and empower people while keeping an eye on what has to be achieved and the ability to stand back from the day to day action.
Leader Behavior of Directors A director at Parkway should have a behavior to motivate each nurse that is employed. Most nurses are coming for different generations. Directors should become good motivators, by giving constant feedback on the nurses’ performance. Directors also have to have great communication skills. Communicating with the nursing staff can be a start of a good working relationship between the employer and employees. With great communication skills, nurses will feel assured when they hear from their management team. Lastly, directors should be encouraging. When leading a team or organization giving encouragement to subordinates is very important because it gives on the psychological effect (Leadership, 2011).
Leader Behavior of Nursing Supervisors A nursing supervisor should have the ability to motivate their staff to perform better under different situations. They are able to help staff to understand how to handle conflict and follow with appropriate disciplinary actions when necessary (Leadership, 2011). This would solve all kinds of misunderstanding between staff. Nursing supervisors also have to be able to manage working shifts of all nursing staff or their team. They are also reasonable for asking senior staff to train and motivate new staff so they can fit in with the organization. This has make the new staff feel more at ease when someone in the same position to help them learn about the organization policy and procedures.
Major Sources of Stress Stress can come in forms of emotions and physical tension.
Stress can affect the body and mind when someone is under a large amount. Stress can also lead to a mental breakdown when it gets out of control. There are four major sources of job stress at Parkway, which are environmental, personal, workplace and emotional stress. Environment stress is a response to thing that goes on around them that causes stress. These can be frustrations, such as, noise, crowding, pressure from work or family and disorganized environment (Environment, 2010). Despite these frustrations are small, they can trigger an individual stress level. Personal stress is when an individual is not happy in a particular environment (Environment, 2010). Personal stress can also occur when individuals have major changes in life like divorce, death or illness of a family member or close friend, having a baby and attending college. Workplace stress occurs when demand of work increase and employees do not have the resources to handle or complete the demand (Chung, 2011). When employees feel overwhelmed from job duties can lead to physical and emotional stress. This source of stress can lead to employees’ absentee, workplace accidents, injuries and turnovers (Chung, 2011). Emotional stress occurs when employees found situations difficult or challenging. Emotional stress is self-created and is difficult to understand and manage (Chung, 2011). When individuals cannot control their emotions, emotional stress factors get worse and harder to solve the problem that cause the
stress.
All of these sources of stress can cause damage to a person body. Stress can cause high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat and blood clots (Chung, 2011). Stress is also linked to heart attacks and heart failure. According to (Environmental, 2010), to minimize the stress level, employees need to remember the acronym ‘STOP’. The ‘s’ stands for stop, which means clear your thoughts and focus on the problem. The ‘t’ stands for think, which means the employee identifies the solutions in detail. The ‘o’ stands for organize, which allow the employee to develop a step-by-step plan after looking at the options. Lastly the ‘p’ stands for precede with the plan, which the employee is able to be flexible and make adjustments to their plan when necessary.
Stress Management Plan
There are several ways to reduce stress at Parkway. Professionals use stress management training to teach nurses how to control stress. Some exercises professionals use are physical exercise training, relaxation training and improvement of social life training (Styles, 2011)). Though physical exercise, the physical health of nurses is the most important factor. When a nurse fitness level is high, they are more energetic to do their day to day work duties. Nurses have busy schedules and never have time to relax. Though relaxation training, it teaches nurses how to relax. This gives nurses the opportunity to refresh their emotions before returning back to work. Lastly, improvement of social life training is a great stress reliever. When nurses are able to make friends and attend social events will reduce stress.
Conclusion
With the growing need for specialized healthcare institutions, Parkway needs to change with the demand to continue to be successful. Parkway need to implement training classes to teach their staff how to handle stress and their physical health. This would reduce Parkway employees’ injuries, absences and turnover rates.