NURS 6053 ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES TO SUPPORT HEALTHCARE ISSUES

. In every organization, there are always competing ought to be addressed to ensure efficiency in the operational processes. Specifically, in healthcare institutions that involve the development and implementation of different policies, there are always competing needs be fully addressed by the management or policymakers. Competing needs arise within any organization as healthcare workers seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet hospital goals (Minvielle, 2018). In every healthcare organization, leaders and workers often have their specific goals. The differences in their objectives or goals may lead to competing needs. As leaders and workers set their targets, there are always priorities; besides, there is always the need to consider the available resources that may facilitate processes and procedures towards meeting these goals. A policy addressing adequate nurse staffing is essential to meet the patient and workforce needs while minimizing hospital costs. However, utilization of more nursing staff might result in economic inefficiencies along with misallocated resources (Wicks & St Clair, 2017). 

Before embarking on allocating resources, there is always the need for healthcare management to consider their priorities to address the competing needs. In most cases, healthcare institutions consider their priorities before distributing resources to different processes. To effectively formulate policies that would ensure incorporation of the best practices as well as the efficiency in the general operational processes, the management needs to involve nurses and other healthcare professional teams (Park & Yu, 2019). In other words, making a decision on where to allocate resources should involve the entire workforce. A policy might address these competing needs by ensuring an optimal nurse-to-patient ratio, improving care outcomes for patients, and ensuring patient safety. Besides, a policy may be formulated and enough resources allocated to ensure a significant reduction in the number of healthcare-acquired infections and the improvement in patient outcomes.  

References 

Minvielle, E. (2018). Toward Customized Care: Comment on”(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”. International journal of health policy and management, 7(3), 272. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5890073/ 

Park, H., & Yu, S. (2019). Effective policies for eliminating nursing workforce shortages: A systematic review. In Health Policy and Technology, 8(3), 296-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2019.08.003 

Wicks, A. M., & St Clair, L. (2017). Competing values in healthcare: balancing the (un) balanced scorecard. Journal of Healthcare Management, 52(5). https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=10969012&AN=27028943&h=xt8qw%2fV9vHxEXGym8bL66d4PtA2v%2f%2bjudnSM4Nhe6H