Motivational Healthcare Techniques Healthcare Motivational Essay Most

Motivational Healthcare Techniques

Healthcare Motivational Essay

Most companies would concur that human resources are one of the most -- if not the most -- valuable assets a company has. And what is the healthcare industry besides a (usually) for-profit company? Oftentimes, however, there is an incongruent dichotomy between healthcare management and its employees, or more properly called its caregivers. Hiring, training, and employment policies may sometimes conflict greatly with the company's (hospital's) bottom line, which is profitability, over the ability to maintain high or even average motivation amongst its workers. This paper seeks to explore at least three ways a rapprochement might be met between upper management successfully handling the bottom line -- profit -- and exhorting its agents (employees, or caregivers) to keep their motivation high enough to reach maximum levels for both parties.

The first motivational technique worth noting is one in which a study conducted by S. Douglas Pugh, Joerg Dietz, Jack W. Wiley, and Scott M. Brooks utilized linkage research. This particular type of research is especially utilitarian for service-oriented industries, such as healthcare fields, because of the inherent link that exists between doctor and patient, nurse and patient, or other caregiver and patient. Measurements can be quantified by so-called customer satisfaction, or in our case, patient satisfaction. This linkage data provides managers with a unique way to qualify the ways in which all types of caregivers in the healthcare industry can be better motivated, and therefore provide better service to patients. The study itself is reciprocal, in that satisfied patients motivated healthcare providers to do their best.

This data from the linkage study provides us with a roadmap to motivate our healthcare employees with a reward system much like personal patient satisfaction and even financial incentive (in the forms of raises or bonuses). Provided we implement this system across the organization, all of our healthcare employees will come to understand what behaviors are rewarded, i.e. their proper and good treatment of patients, and will instinctively implement their own self-directed program of motivational care giving (Pugh et al. 73). After all, this is the basis for our nation's form of capitalism: best self-interest. It has a proven "real world" track record beyond what this study indicates.

Empowering healthcare employees to perceive that they are able to solve patient issues was high in places where employees received extensive training, where teamwork was encouraged and valued, and where managers exhorted quality patient care (73). This is akin to instilling pride in one's work, and appropriately rewarding such great work, thereby increasing the motivation to be a better employee. This increase from Pugh, et al.'s study is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1-Employee Motivation by Linkage Techniques

A second method for increasing caregivers' motivation relies on cognitive valuation theory. Gagne and Deci's 2005 study compared extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivations in the workplace, and in particular in the healthcare setting (331). Gagne's and Deci's study ultimately led to their high-profiled and implemented degree of so-called self-determination theory.

Gagne's and Deci's study found that, like Pough's research, tangible rewards for good employment practices can negate salient extrinsic rewards upon motivational work behavior (356). Gagne and Deci aver that it is a well-established fact that using salient extrinsic rewards in the workplace can, and typically does, lead to unconstructive mental job performance (356). Thus, their theory, while utilizing rewards for good workplace behavior, requires a more inconspicuous approach.

This is achieved by what Gagne and Deci term self-determination, or self-actualization theory. Much as one might attempt to tell another a certain lesson in life -- a mother to her child for instance -- the desired outcome (i.e. The lesson learned) is almost always more successfully should the one learning realize it for herself, whether or not she is actually aware she is experiencing self-realization, or if the seed was, in reality, planted in her brain by someone else.

Cognitive learning theory provides an explanation why this is so. In terms of motivating healthcare professionals, Gagne and Deci's research suggests planting the motivational seeds by all means, but in order to be successful, the individual must believe he has come to the conclusion himself. Extrinsic rewards can be seen as a bribe of sorts, especially when one considers the high level of education and sophistication of most healthcare professionals, meaning that they would typically see right through the "reward for good behavior" scheme.

Thus, the question becomes, how does management go about planting the motivational seed in its employees so that it ripens to ostensible self-realization? Self-determination theory provides such a method for implementation. Feelings of autonomy are vital to feelings of workplace competence and thus have a tremendous effect on motivation. Extrinsic rewards, deadlines, evaluations, and even surveillance have been shown to have detrimental effects on employee morale (Gagne and Deci, 2005). Instead, providing employees, and in this case healthcare professionals, with choices about which tasks to prioritize and consequently successfully complete allowed feelings of autonomy not otherwise typically attainable, leading to higher feelings of responsibility, and, as a result, higher motivation to adequately take care of one's workplace responsibilities (332).

Finally, the third proposition for increasing employee motivation was almost accidentally realized with the introduction of market-based reforms with the past twenty-five years. This capitalistic approach has dramatically changed the way healthcare is delivered and, as a collateral result, the way healthcare professionals view their jobs. Under stringent reforms, Clark et al., (2001) found that nurses tended toward much more negative views regarding the general ambiance of patient care. This as a result of increasing workloads while reducing staff, and consequently extending responsibilities without an accompanying increase in rate of pay (133).

Clark et al. (2001) ultimately found that motivation increased significantly (146) when healthcare workers were given a platform for voicing their opinions and concerns, such as having their supervisor(s) take the time to request input and actually implement some of those ideas coming from the healthcare workers. Hospitals must be adequately staffed so that nurses do not feel overworked and at the same time patients are satisfied with the level of care received; in other words, the ratio of patient to hospital worker must be a fixed, equal number capable of producing the desired results.