Practicum Experience

The work of advanced practice nurses (APNs) is influenced by many factors that extend beyond their direct reach. At the same time, the influence of APNs is often felt beyond the immediate context within which the serve as the changes they propose influence multiple systems and impact multiple groups of stakeholders. For this reason, APNs are encouraged to promote evidence-based change at all times. This text discusses effective shift-scheduling as the proposed evidence-based change for my practicum setting. It identifies internal and external issues that could affect implementation, and identifies ways in which the proposed change could lead to shifts at levels beyond the practicum.

The Proposed Evidence-Based Change: Shift Scheduling

Hospitals require round-the-clock service, and as such, nurses work has to be organized in shifts that are then organized into schedules (Kluger et al., 2020). This is geared at ensuring continuity of care and patient safety (Kluger et al., 2020). Scheduling is the process of providing productive resources to ensure continuity in the production process and help the organization carry out its required function (Kluger et al., 2020). It is a process of assigning the right people to the right jobs (Kluger et al., 2020). In a healthcare setting, scheduling is a process of planning, organizing, staffing, actuating, and controlling of nurse working hours (Rizany et al., 2019, p. 2). It involves managing and allocating time to planned tasks by considering nurses competencies equality, flexibility, and skill mix to maximize patient safety without compromising nurses job satisfaction (Rizany et al., 2019). The objective of scheduling is to assign an appropriate number of nurses...

For this reason, I selected nurse scheduling as the proposed evidence-based change for my practicum. The organization may already have a nurse schedule in place. However, my idea is to change the scheduling process to include higher levels of staff participation.

Issues that could affect the Implementation of Effective Nurse Scheduling

Several internal and external factors to the practicum may affect the implementation of effective nurse scheduling. One of the primary internal factors is the organizations staffing levels (Abd-Al-Aziz & Wahab, 2019). An effective nurse scheduling plan will require the organization to have a certain optimal number of nurses to minimize burnout and work strain during ones shift. However, staffing decisions are subject to resource availability, which implies that if the organization lacks the capacity to hire additional nurses to meet the optimum number, then scheduling may not be effective. Personnel budgets and staffing plans that cannot flex up and down may limit the APNs ability to implement and sustain an effective nurse scheduling program.

Lack of financial resources may also hinder effective implementation of a scheduling program, as it would limit the organizations ability to hire additional staff as well as to enhance the skills set of the current staff. Further, development of a nurse schedule would require the APN to carry out surveys with both patients…