Free Essay About Workplace Safety

Analysis and Discussion

Researchers confirm that workplace environment needs to be comfortable enough from several perspectives in order to boost the productivity levels as well as the motivation levels of the staff members of a given organization. However, it seems that, for every organization, there has been one or the other issue regarding the workplace environment that is hampering the efficiency of the working levels of the nursing staff.
Dearholt and Dang (2012) in their book mention that, "Work place safety is very important in all fields of work." They further mention that, in a given facility the nurses are required to serve for the 12-hour work shifts, but it seems that, they are working for almost 16 hours a day. It is becoming so hectic for the day that, they are not able to balance their professional and personal lives. As a result, they are facing several issues in their day-to-day routine activities.
Research shows that, "Prolonged work hours can hinder a nurse’s performance and have negative impacts on patients’ safety and outcomes (ANA.com)." It can lead to severe nurse fatigue, which further can impact the health of the nurses in several ways. Hence, ANA Calls for Stronger Collaboration between RNs and Employers to Reduce Risks from Nurse Fatigue.
The student has provided a well-directed response in this direction since he has mentioned that, employers need to take into consideration this issue or else it will become difficult for the current working staff to continue with the same motivation and enthusiasm on this job. In addition, he has even suggested hiring new nurses that will help the organization to solve the staffing issue and the overtime issue. He has further added that, it will also lead to a change in security policy for the medical staff during times lock down, so that oncoming relief can still get in the facility during these times.
Thus, overall it is recommended to recruit new staff so that the nurses are not required to work for so long hours (Dearholt & Dang, 2012). They will thereby, be able to provide their full commitment and better productivity at a given workplace. And, finally, with the change in the shifts, the other new recruited staff will be able to serve equally well as per the needs of the organization.

Quality and Safety Reports From the IOM Website

The IOM states, "The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of the government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public." The key aim of this organization is to recommend the decision makers regarding how to take better decisions in a given public or private sector organization (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2015). Decision making plays an important role for any individual at his or her given workplace in the organization. And hence, for this purpose, he is required to analyze the environment, decide upon the strategies, scan the variables, and only then take the final decisions regarding any given issue.
The student has provided a good response to this issue, since he has suggested incorporating the IOC framework to achieve the objective of taking better strategic decisions. He mentions that, "The IOC framework is based on the core competencies for healthcare professionals to provide quality safe patient care. This framework includes evidenced-based practice, safety, informatics, patient-centered care, teamwork, and collaboration."
The IOM uses a rigorous research process for their evidenced-based findings. Our text states, "While non-research evidence does not have the rigor of research evidence, it does provide important information for informed practice decisions" (Dearholt & Dang, 2010, p. 141). The student further adds that, this framework provides useful information on how to solve the problems and how to make better decisions for several issues that might arise at a given workplace in the organization.
The American Nurses Association states, "The IOM reports and other publications are directed to universal medical practice, and sometimes explicitly to nursing, and provide a framework for systemic positive change in healthcare services (ANA, 2010)." The student also provides information on how to access the information provided by ANA on this issue. They can find relevant information on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and accordingly go through the workshops, health-related stories and the ongoing studies. It will help them to improve their current working practices and deliver better from the quality and safety perspective. It will surely make a huge difference in how the practices are implemented for the patients. The reports generated by ANA also provide recommendations on how we can up-date or change our Wellness policies and procedures for our school district.

References

Dearholt, S. L., & Dang, D. (2012). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and guidelines (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.
Link: http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/WorkplaceSafety/Healthy-Work-Environment/Work-Environment/NurseFatigue/Stronger-Collaboration-to-Reduce-Risks-from-Nurse-Fatigue.html
American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: Author.
Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2015). Week 6 Lesson: Strategies for Effective Change. Retrieved from Chamberlain website: my.chamberlain.edu.