Managing nursing facility change: schedule shift versus electronic health records implementation

Strategic Management within a nursing facility

Change initiatives are always met with resistance in within the healthcare organizations, just as it is in other types of organizations. It is the responsibility of the management to implement the changes with diligence to the change management tenets if they are to experience success in the change initiatives or if the management is to minimize the resistance from the staff member as much as possible.

One change that failed to see the light of day was the attempt for the nursing facility I am attached at to change their working schedule for the nurses to shift upwards by two hours, such that they would be reporting at 10 am and leaving at 5pm as opposed to the previous schedule that saw them report at 8 am and leave at 3 pm. This was an attempt that the management thought would align the timings with the other nursing facilities around and also improve the performance of the nurses. However the change proposition met resistance and indeed absconding of duty and failed to be fully implemented due the following reasons:

There was little consultation with the employees except for the departmental heads hence the employees felt left out.

The implementation was in the form of top-down approach that left the employees feeling that the change was being imposed on them.

There was no effort by the management to explain to the employee the rationale for the changes and how it would benefit them.

The employees had been used to early start of working and the changes were viewed as unnecessary interruption to their daily trend of activities.

The other reason for the resistance to this change was bad communication strategy since they were just informed that the reporting and departure times has changed forthwith.

The employees also felt that this change was unnecessary interruption to their social life outside the work environment which they had already formatted to the previous times.

On the other hand, within this same health care facility, the IT department introduced the significantly huge change within the organization and it was effectively implemented and functions to the present time. The IT department automated most activities within the facility and introduced the electronic health record (EHR) in all the departments. They further initiated an electronic logging in and out when reporting or leaving work at the end of the day. They also improved the communication between the various departments. This change, despite being one that affected almost all departments of the organization, it ended up being effectively implemented due to the following;

The IT department first organized departmental seminars to discuss the changes that were necessary to their departments.

The IT department used examples from other organizations to sensitize the employees on the necessity of the changes they were to implement.

The IT ensured that the affected employees understood what the benefits of the changes were, for them as well as the organization as a whole.

The IT department trained the various departments on the use of the new technologies that were to be introduced and ensured all were equipped with the knowledge hence felt in control of the new changes.

The changes that were made were implemented in piecemeal to give time for the users to absorb and get used to one change before getting onto the next.

The IT provided all the necessary post-changes support that the departments or even individuals would need hence the employees embraced the changes in totality.