Introduction In healthcare organizational settings, competing needs are rather commonplace. Thus, nurse leaders ought to effectively manage these needs so as to ensure that an organization is able to fulfill its obligations to various stakeholders, i.e. patients and employees. To a large extent, this involves not only prudent allocation of resources, but also proper establishment of priorities.

Competing Needs

The competing needs in the organizational setting are: the need to promote better outcomes via the acquisition and implementation of new technology and the need to raise the minimum wage of employees as a motivation and retention strategy.

To begin with, it should be noted that technology is of great relevance in healthcare settings. As a matter of fact, Kruse and Beane (2018) point out that there is no doubt that technology has had a significant impact in the way healthcare services are delivered in the healthcare realm. It is likely that going forward, new innovations in the technological realm are likely to further impact healthcare processes. This is particularly the case when it comes to the promotion of procedures and processes meant to improve health and wellbeing while at the same time saving lives. My organization recognizes the relevance of the implementation of technology so as to ensure better outcomes and remain relevant in an increasingly competitive healthcare marketplace. Towards this end, it has in the past been quick to embrace new technology and innovations whenever there are indications that such a move could lower healthcare costs, ease workflow, and result in improved patient outcomes.

It should be noted that as Kruse and Beane (2018) observe, going forward, healthcare organizations that fail to embrace technology are likely to lose out on many fronts – especially when it comes to the effectiveness and relevance or interventions deployed. Some of the areas that have been identified by various authors as being central to the further transformation of healthcare going forward include, but they are not limited to; sensors/wearable devices, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality (Agah, 2013). Already, my organization is well aware of these developments and in seeking to stay ahead of the pack, it is continuously scanning the environment so as to identify opportunities that could be deployed in the medical realm to further promote as well as improve patient outcomes.

However, even it seeking to embrace technology on the basis of its relevance as has been highlighted above, it should be noted that healthcare organizations have to come to term with the fact that the adoption and implementation of technology is a rather cost intensive exercise. This is particularly the case when it comes to not only the purchase of the relevant equipment and systems, but also the delivery of employee training in an attempt to promote usage and minimize resistance to change as a consequence of lack of familiarity. For this reason, given the finite nature of resources and the fact that hospital margins of most healthcare institutions have been under pressure, the acquisition and implementation of new technology could mean that less attention is apportioned to the need to raise the minimum...

This is despite the latter move being equally important in the light of nurse shortages being experienced across the nation.
Littlejohn, Campbell, Collins-McNeil, and Khayile (2012) point out that the shortage of nurses is a global concern. In the words of Cherry and Jacob (2018), to a large extent, “the nursing profession continues to face shortages due to lack of potential educators, high turnover, and inequitable distribution of the workforce” (79). Amongst the reasons highlighted above, the only factor that healthcare organizations have complete or total control of (and thus could do something about) is high turnover. Towards this end, an organization can implement various measures meant to ensure that it retains a significant proportion of the workforce over time. One of the strategies that have been offered in the past in relation to the improvement of nurse retention is improved nurse wages (Jones...…the organization ought to embrace the relevant measures in an attempt to protect patients from harm while at the same time acting in the best interests of the said patients. A policy inclined towards the promotion of patient safety could trigger an ethical conflict whereby possible risks have to be matched against the benefits projected.

Recommendations

In seeking to balance the competing needs that have been highlighted in this text, I would recommend that the organization adopts the system approach to the delivery of healthcare. In this case, of importance would be properly perceiving the operations of various care elements, i.e. in connection with each other as well as individually. In not focusing on separate individual elements, the organization would be seeking to improve entire systems in a holistic format by considering how both needs could be deployed to enable it fulfill its overall mandate. However, it is only through proper understanding of the issues - i.e. the acquisition and implementation of new technology and the need to raise the minimum wage of employees as a motivation and retention strategy – and how they operate individually that they can be integrated for the wellbeing of the entire organization and those that it serves. This understanding should be in line with the various organizational processes and procedures already in place.

References

Agah, A. (Ed.). (2013). Medical Applications of Artificial Intelligence. New York, NY: CRC Press.

Barlow, J. (2016). Managing Innovation in Healthcare. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Publishing Company.

Cherry, B. & Jacob, S.R. (2018). Contemporary Nursing: Issues, Trends, & Management (8th ed.). St Louis, MO: Elsevier Health.

Jones, C.B. & Gates, M. (2007). The Costs and Benefits of Nurse Turnover: A Business Case for Nurse Retention. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(3).

Littlejohn, L., Campbell, J., Collins-McNeil, J. & Khayile, T. (2012). Nursing Shortage: A Comparative Analysis. International Journal of Nursing, 1(1), 22-27.

Kruse, C.S. & Beane, A. (2018). Health Information Technology Continues to Show Positive Effect on Medical Outcomes: Systematic Review. J Med Internet…