Brace Yourselves. Nurse Reforms Are Coming.
An article was recently published by Mighty Nurse detailing changes in healthcare being brought about by nurses. The Clinical Scene Investigator Academy is teaming up with nurses to change standard healthcare protocols, including fall prevention, early ambulation, and decreasing pressure ulcers. Writer Lynda Lampert expresses a great deal of enthusiasm for such an initiative. After all, who better to help improve the hospital floor than the single largest component of health staffs?
My question, however, is why limit improvements to just health protocols? Nurses in many ways represent the backbone of hospitals; the in’s and out’s of a hospital are rather comprehensive, and it takes a great deal of complex infrastructure to operate. With such a structure, it is inevitable that executive decisions supported by the input of intelligent individuals miss the mark when it trickles down to hospital staff, nurses included, whom such decisions directly impact.
The result? Billions of dollars lost due to inefficiencies.
The benefit of listening to every member of an organization, no matter where they stand in the chain of command, has been proven by a variety of companies. A notable example is Pixar Animation, who organized what they called Notes Day, where a routine workday was instead turned into a time for feedback and improvement from every member of the organization. While it is hard for a healthcare system to replicate and organize something like this, the concept is still valid, and being tested in healthcare by organizations such as the CSIA.
Nurses know nursing and even more, nurses know hospitals. The right idea to change the way a hospital runs may be in the mind of any RN, LPN, or NP out there. With a greater say in choices that directly impact them, decision-makers have the opportunity to make changes in healthcare with the insight and expertise from those most impacted. Every day, nurses are making a difference in the lives of their patients. There’s no reason that the same can’t be said for the workplace.
