Deborah Rosen: Effective Leadership and Management in Your Organization

For my IOM trained consultant report, I chose to use the hospital at which I did my
preceptorship. Its organizational values are advertised as “ICARE: Integrity, Compassion,
Accountability, Respect, Excellence, and Patient- and Family-centered Care.” (Stony Brook
2011). It also holds magnet status. Keeping patients safe is a major priority of this teaching
hospital.

One of the things the hospital has done to keep patients safe and enhance the nurses’ work
environment is the institution of a computerized medical record system, along with computerized
medication dispensing and computerized communication system. For patients, this helps to cut
down on medication errors, as well as provides a faster response when assistance is needed from
physicians. For the nurses, the system greatly cuts down the amount of paperwork that has to be
done. The computerized medication dispensing helps eliminate errors by providing one dose at a
time, with each medication in a separate compartment. Phone calls to doctors no longer have to
be made, as instant messages can be sent. In my report, I found that all five essential
management practices were present, however; a few had room for improvement.

During the night shift, there was a team leader present on the unit, which was a voluntary
position. During my time there, the same person was always team leader (no one else
volunteered). There was also a nurse manager for the Med-Surg floors. I had the opportunity to
meet her during a rapid response and she advocated for the nurses (the doctors who arrived did
not feel the rapid response was necessary), explaining it was hospital policies for nurses to call a
rapid response when patients met certain criteria.

One of the essential management practices that I found was working was “using knowledge
management practices to establish the organization as a “learning organization.” (IOM 2003).
There are many opportunities for on-site continuing education and employee training, as well as
continuous training for technological advances. Some of these classes are mandatory for nurses,
and are scheduled for them. In addition, the hospital utilizes a preceptorship program for nurses.

As an upper level manager/leader, I would have institutes a mentor program to enhance the
learning practice. I found that the nurses were not all familiar with the preceptor program, and
perhaps having mentors available would increase enthusiasm for attending classes, preceptors,
and participating in leadership situations.

Resources:

Stony Brook University Medical Center (2011). Quality and safety. Retrieved from.

Institute of medicine (2003). Keeping patients safe: transforming the work environment
of nurses. http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10851.1.html.