Employee Management and Research in Healthcare

¶ … size is an important consideration with regards to data collection for statistical analysis in a study. Sample size plays an important role in a research process since the identification of a suitable sample size for statistical analysis is crucial towards generating accurate results. Actually, the determination of sample size is closely linked to statistical estimation or determination. The significance of sample size is partly attributable to its relation to confidence intervals. The link between sample size and confidence intervals is that confidence intervals provide the probable range of a sample mean or proportion from the actual mean/proportion found in the study population. This allows the researcher to estimate the accuracy of findings or results generated from the sample in comparison with the true population. Moreover, sample size affects the margin of error or confidence levels though the actual size of the population does not influence margin of error (Johnson & Kuby, 2012). In essence, large sample sizes tend to generate narrow confidence intervals and more accurate estimates whereas small sample sizes generate wide confidence intervals and less accurate results. For instance, a sample size of 1000 generates a confidence interval of 3.1, which implies that the estimates are more precise. On the contrary, a sample size of 500 increases the confidence interval to 4.3 and generates less accurate estimates.

Human Resources

The healthcare industry has attracted considerable attention by labor unions in the past decade as various efforts have been undertaken to unionize employees in this sector. These union organizing efforts have specifically targeted registered nurses since they represent the largest group of professionals in the healthcare industry. However, the various union organizing efforts that have been carried out have had limited success. Actually, when majority of nurses in a healthcare organization have considered speaking to union organizers, the organization's management have responded through prompt firing of nurse leaders. According to Clark & Clark (2006), existing evidence shows that nurses are more likely to join a union if these labor organizations would help them enhance the quality of patient care, which is their most important concern (p.51). Based on these researchers, unionization in the healthcare sector is less significant than initially anticipated due to various challenges. Some of these challenges include conventional reticence by healthcare professionals to join unions and the belief that a labor union is only helpful in this sector if it helps improve patient care. In my view, labor unions play a minimal role in healthcare employment management given that recent trends and literature shows that nurses are generally reluctant to join labor unions. In addition, successful union organizing efforts have been characterized by numerous challenges in healthcare that has made their impact less significant and desirable in this industry. Nurses have become more focused on enhancing the quality of patient care rather that joining unions to advocate for their various issues and challenges.

I support the argument by one of my peers that unions have little effect on the healthcare industry. While these organizations have had some success, the various challenges in this sector have made it difficult for them to have far-reaching impact. There is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that union representation has increased in the recent past, especially because of challenges like nursing shortage. However, the increase of labor unions in this industry does not necessarily mean that these organizations have a significant role in employee management in healthcare. To this extent, I disagree with the argument by another peer that unions have played a crucial role in addressing nursing shortage through dealing with existing issues in the healthcare sector that contributes to this problem. It's quite evident that the problem of nursing shortage still persist and existing unions in healthcare have done very little to deal with them. Actually, there is little to no evidence that shows that labor unions have been successful and effective in helping nurses to have a greater voice during patient care and decision making on issues relating to nursing practice. In essence, unions do not play a significant role in employee management in the health care industry because of increased focus on quality of patient care. Based on the peer-reviewed article and insights from the unit readings or class materials, unions have a minimal role in healthcare employment management and only have considerable influence if they focus on the quality of patient care, which is crucial for healthcare practitioners.

Leadership in Healthcare