Change Champions and Opinion Leaders Reducing Medication Errors

CHANGE CHAMPIONS AND OPINION LEADERS

Change Champions and Opinion Leaders

Change champions are knowledgeable individuals who influence change decisions in the direction the change agency deems desirable (Rogers, 2003). Conversely, opinion leaders are individuals who can informally influence people’s attitudes towards change (Rogers, 2003). Both change champions and opinion leaders are crucial for ensuring that people adopt innovations (Hickey & Giardino, 2021). This assignment identifies the change champions and opinion leaders in the proposed project problem that seeks to reduce medication errors in the practice setting.

Differences between Opinion Leaders and Change Agents

Roger’s (2003) diffusion curve concept provides an invaluable means to illustrate the difference between opinion leaders and change champions. The curves represent the real-life rate of hybrid corn seed adoption by farmers in two Iowa communities. The seeds were first introduced and adopted by the earliest adopters in 1927, while the last group of farmers adopted the same fifteen years later in 1941 (Rogers, 2003). When the hybrid seeds were first introduced, the government sent a group of agronomists from Iowa universities to help early adopter farmers understand the new technology and its potential benefits (Rogers, 2003). Years later, when the farmers had experienced success, they shared their experiences on the technology’s benefits with other farmers. Consequently, adoption spread to all farmers in the two communities (Rogers, 2003).

From the example, the agronomists sent from various universities to educate the farmers were the change champions (Rogers, 2003). The authors reckon that few early adopters would have adopted the change in the absence of the agronomists (Rogers, 2003). From this real-life example, change champions have several core features. First, they have superior technical knowhow as compared to the rest of the population and their primary role is to fill gaps in knowhow and technical knowledge (Rogers, 2003). They influence attitudes in the direction favoured by the change agent and are most prominent in the very early stages of the change adoption process (Rogers, 2003). The change champions in the project problem are myself, the practicum coordinator, the consultants carrying out medication safety education, and members of the hospital management team, including the CEO, the director of nursing, and the medical superintendent. The director of nursing and medical superintendent represent the clinical staff among the change champions. However, because of their formal positions, the staff may not feel that they adequately represent their interests and expectations. As such, there is a need for opinion leaders.

The opinion leaders in the Rogers (2003) example are the influential early-adopting farmers. One of their primary attributes is that they command significant influence among members of the social system and act like mediators between change agents and members of the population in the process of change (Locock et al., 2001). Further, they are respected and held in high regard and are more connected to the change agents and the outside world (Locock et al., 2001). Opinion leaders for the proposed change process would be categorized into expert and peer opinion leaders (Locock et al., 2001).

Expert opinion leaders would include nurse leaders, chief general practitioners, and the lead pharmacists. The expert opinion leaders would give credibility to the program among the rest of the staff in their cadre. Taking the nurses, for instance; the fact that the some of their own (nurse leaders), whom they could trust, had thought about joining the medication safety education program would encourage the rest to join and make the most from the program. The nurse leaders serving as opinion leaders among their peers will undergo training to increase their knowledge on medication errors so that they can respond adequately to debate and challenges, and thus win the confidence of their fellow nursing colleagues (Locock et al., 2001).