The Values of Community Health Systems

You need to write a policy for advocacy. You should choose a community or health organisation and then decide upon the health issue you are advocating for, and the specific population in which this issue occurs. You are writing this policy as if you worked for this agency or peak organisation.

The health organization to assess is the Community Health Systems that is a fortune 500 organization situated in Franklin, Tennessee (Liao et al., 2016, pp.11-15).   Values and ideologies apparent in the company have made the most significant contribution to making the healthcare useful and great.

Community Health Systems have several values that are adhered to, in offering quality services to the patients. One is on dignity, where the organization upholds that the human life is sacred and thus deserves respect regardless of the condition (Swider et al., 2017, pp. 657-660).  The other value by the organization is on compassionate care.  The type of responsibility shown by employees in this organization is not only to patients but also to each other. They ensure that every person is treated professionally, with concern and kind. Also, there is the value of community, where the organization works to meet the necessary medical needs of the community that it serves (Lavigne et al., 2017, pp.  1522-1523). For example, the company ensures that the quality of life and health is ensured by services like education on how to prevent illnesses and clinical services.

The value of quality is also evident in the organization, where employees and other stakeholders strive to offer the best services to clients (Murillo et al., 2016, pp.280-2860).  The workers believe that where people work together, better outcomes are realized within a short time. The last value evident in Community Health Systems is stewardship. In this factor, the organization value trustworthiness stewardship as well as acting based on the high ethical standards that would result in the public in trusting the organization.

The ideologies evident in this organization connect the organizational and functioning aspects of politics. However, just like other European organizations, there is no clear explanation on how the ideologies are actively applied in the functions of the organization (Giger, 2016).  Despite the lack of clear evidence, it could be concluded that the political-ideological aspects determine the policies that are applied to the organization and those left.  This is to say that apart from the normal principles that determine the applicability of a policy, the political aspect is also considered. This has made nations in the same geographical locations, populations or historical tradition, have policies that are different as political ideologies differ.  This is because; the governing people do not have similar ideas with other nations and thus makes different policies. This is to say that the ideologies in Community Health Systems are dependent on the decisions that politicians in the region make the policies made directly affect issues practiced by the workers in the organization.

The Ideologies of Community Health Systems

The health problem evident in the organization is depression and burn out, among the nurses.  With the fact that the organization is one of the largest in the nation, it is expected that it operates 24/7. This is to say that the nurses’ work based on shifts, where they work either at night or during the day or even both times when the work is too much. This has led to most of the nurses developing depression due to burn out.

One of the aspects to consider is the extent of the problem in the organization and others that offer services all the time. One, a study was conducted in 1999, where around 10, 000 nurses were asked about the work where 43 percent of them recorded of having emotional exhaustion that made them claim that they disliked the work (Adriaenssens et al., 2015, pp. 649-661).   A more recent study was also carried out, in 2007, where about 68, 000 registered nurses were asked about stress in the workplace (Boamah and Laschinger, 2016). They were divided into hospital nurses, nursing home nurses and the operating from other points. The hospital nurses were the most affected by burning out, evidenced with emotional imbalance, leading to behaviors like anger and rudeness to patients. In connection to that, depression prevalence is common among the nurses than any other population in the United States. For example in a study where 1171 nurses were assessed, it was realized that 18 percent of them had depression, while only nine percent of the general population was affected (Cañadas et al., 2015, pp. 240-249).  Community Health Systems is no exception in nurses working for too long without rest. A nursing class in one of the Universities in the nation visited the hospital, with the aim to know how nurses in the organization were handled. To their shock, most of the nurses reported that were it not for an economy that needed people to work to live well; most would have left the job (Hunsaker et al., 2015, pp. 186-194). Even those that had selected the field out of passion felt that the work was too much that they lacked time for their families and other things like sleep.

The other aspect to address is the urgency for changes in making the problem end among the nurses. The urgency is explained by the issues resulted by the issues, which demands immediate solution by the hospital’s organizational management. One is of quality and safety. In a study that was carried out across the nation, where about 7100 nurses were assessed, it was clear that the higher the number of burnt out nurses, the higher the cases of medical errors and malpractices (Rushton et al., 2015, pp. 412-420).  This is to say that where nurses are emotionally unstable, more errors are experienced in the process of treating patients. This has lowered the quality of services in the hospital and leaving the patients unsafe. The case is worse in intensive care units, where more deaths result whenever many nurses report the cases of burn out. This means that the relationship between poor qualities and unsafe treatments and nurses’ burn out is direct as the increase in one leads to the increase of the other.  

Nurse Burnout in Community Health Systems

The other issue that makes the problem urgent is on patient satisfaction. One of the objectives of Community Health System Organization is to ensure that patients are satisfied with the services offered in the hospital (Laschinger et al., 2015, pp.1080-1089).  In ensuring this, they ought to be treated holistically, that is physical, emotionally, spiritually and other aspects that could affect them. Where the nurses are burnt out, the emotional imbalance leads to behaviors like anger, rudeness and withdraw (Linzer et al., 2015, pp. 1105-1111). This indicates that nurses that are emotionally unstable are unable to establish the right rapport with the patients leading poor services and this patients’ dissatisfaction (Khamisa et al., 2015, pp. 652-666). The case is dangerous to the patients with acute illnesses, as they spend too much money in returning to the organization, which could be avoided if they were treated holistically.

The case does not only affect efficiency in the workplace, but also negatively impacts the nurses. One of the impacts is on sleep (Laschinger and Fida, 2014, pp.19-28). With nurses, the cases are different as most as affected by insomnia.  The reason for this is that they work with shifts and the time they are given to rest, they attend to other areas of life. Lack of enough sleep is one of the issues that lead to emotional imbalance among the nurses, as the brain has remained active for too long (Allen et al., 2015, pp. 381-390). The other effect of the problem to the nurses is the issue of their relationships with other people, mostly their families. They do not get time to spend time with their family members like kids and spouses, which make the members, complain and make the nurses stressed (Marek, Schaufeli, and Maslac, 2017).   This is to say that most of the nurses are antisocial which is not healthy. Other than that, their kids do not grow in the right man as they lack parental guidance.

The proper policy in curbing the problem of burn out among nurses is scheduling a time when they should be in the hospitals. The policy states the number of hours that a nurse should be in the hospital after which they are released. One of the issues that the policy would insist is on the hospital having many nurses, where those working during the day do not work at night and vice versa. With that, the policy would have several objectives. One is reducing the number of hours that a nurse should be in the hospital. On the other hand, it is evident that most of the hospitals plan that, but while implementing, it becomes an issue where the nurses are promised overtime payments. That result in the next objective of the policy, which is to ensure that the hours are observed and that over time working hours are eliminated. Instead, the organization should hire more nurses to handle the patients after the normal time.

Impacts of Nurse Burnout on Quality of Healthcare and Patient Satisfaction

The other objective of the policy is to prevent cases where the nurses work too much leading to the issues explained above. With the policy, the nurses would only work for some time and leave, like other professionals in other fields. This would ensure that they get enough sleep, find time for their families among other things. However, there is a problem in the applicability of the policy. Unlike the other professionals in the hospital, like doctors, the nature of nurses’ work demands their presence as long as the hospital is opened. Therefore, for the policy to work, hospitals have to employers many nurses to ensure that shift time difference is large. This is expensive, and the hospital would not afford.

In curbing the problem of burn out among nurses, the government should carry out several actions, in preventing the adverse effects discussed above. One is through training and education (Marek, Schaufeli, and Maslach, 2017).  In the training and education factor, the government should inform them about the health effects and ways to prevent the conditions. The training should also be conducted to inform the nurses about their rights and what to expect from the hospitals. For example, they have the right to relaxation and airing their views whenever they feel intimidated. The other recommendation for solving burn out issue among the nurses is the development of stress management sessions in every health organization. This is useful as the issue of burn out could be reduced, especially to the people who have passion in the career. As said above, reducing the number of hours that the nurses are in hospitals are minimal and thus the introduction of stress management classes would be helpful. In this case, the administration should ensure that nurses have social activities in organizations, to ensure relaxation of the mind.  The activities would play a vital role in encouraging the nurses remain active while at work and thus prevent boredom (Leiter, 2017, pp. 237-250). The other recommendation by the government is the development of policies that specifically assess how the nurses are handled in the hospital. The policymakers should ensure that the law is implemented, in making sure that loses do not leave work due to too much pressure.

Conclusion

In conclusion, basing the paper on health issues and policies, several aspects are noted. The health organization assessed is the Community Health Systems in the United States. As the paper has described, the health problem noted in the organization is burn out, among the nurses population. Notably, the issues require special attention due to the problems that it has caused to the nurses and workplaces.  For example, there is provision of low-quality services, patients are not satisfied and most of the nurses prefer leaving the work before retirement time. To the nurses, on the other hand, health problems are experienced for example insomnia and their relationship with other people like the family members is spoilt. These issues are adverse which calls for immediate actions if the condition is to be solved. The policy suggested is that the nurses should be allocated some time of work after which they are allowed to leave, without being allocated overtime hours. The paper has described several recommendations that should be taken by the government in making sure that burn out health problem is solved.

Policy Recommendations for Curbing Nurse Burnout

References

Adriaenssens, J., De Gucht, V. and Maes, S., 2015. Determinants and prevalence of burnout in emergency nurses: A systematic review of 25 years of research. International journal of nursing studies, 52(2), pp.649-661.

Allen, B.C., Holland, P., and Reynolds, R., 2015. The effect of bullying on burnout in nurses: the moderating role of psychological detachment. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(2), pp.381-390.

Boamah, S.A. and Laschinger, H., 2016. The influence of areas of work-life fit and work?life interference on burnout and turnover intentions among new graduate nurses. Journal of nursing management, 24(2).

Cañadas-De la Fuente, G.A., Vargas, C., San Luis, C., García, I., Cañadas, G.R. and Emilia, I., 2015. Risk factors and prevalence of burnout syndrome in the nursing profession. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(1), pp.240-249.

Giger, J.N., 2016. Transcultural Nursing-E-Book: Assessment and Intervention. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Hunsaker, S., Chen, H.C., Maughan, D. and Heaston, S., 2015. Factors that influence the development of compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction in emergency department nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(2), pp.186-194.

Khamisa, N., Oldenburg, B., Peltzer, K. and Ilic, D., 2015. Work-related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses. International journal of environmental research and public health, 12(1), pp.652-666.

Laschinger, H.K.S., and Fida, R., 2014. New nurses burn out and workplace well-being: The influence of authentic leadership and psychological capital. Burnout Research, 1(1), pp.19-28.

Laschinger, H.K.S., Borgogni, L., Consiglio, C. and Read, E., 2015. The effects of authentic leadership, six areas of work life, and occupational coping self-efficacy on new graduate nurses’ burnout and mental health: A cross-sectional study. International journal of nursing studies, 52(6), pp.1080-1089.

Lavigne, J.E., Wright, S.A., Burke, E.S., Kirwan, B. and Ball, J., 2017. Community pharmacies and population health. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 74(19), pp.1522-1523.

Leiter, M.P., 2017. Burnout as a developmental process: Consideration of models. In Professional burnout (pp. 237-250). Routledge.                                                                                                                    

Liao, Y., Siegel, P.Z., White, S., Dulin, R. and Taylor, A., 2016. Improving actions to control high blood pressure in Hispanic communities—Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Across the US Project, 2009–2012. Preventive medicine, 83, pp.11-15.

Linzer, M., Poplau, S., Grossman, E., Varkey, A., Yale, S., Williams, E., Hicks, L., Brown, R.L., Wallock, J., Kohnhorst, D. and Barbouche, M., 2015. A randomized cluster trial of interventions to improve work conditions and clinician burnout in primary care: results from the Healthy Work Place (HWP) study. Journal of general internal medicine, 30(8), pp.1105-1111.

Marek, T., Schaufeli, W.B. and Maslach, C., 2017. Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research. Routledge.

Marek, T., Schaufeli, W.B. and Maslach, C., 2017. Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research. Routledge.

Murillo, L., Shih, A., Rosanoff, M., Daniels, A.M. and Reagon, K., 2016. The Role of Multi?Stakeholder Collaboration and Community Consensus Building in Improving Identification and Early Diagnosis of Autism in Low?Resource Settings. Australian Psychologist, 51(4), pp.280-286.

Rushton, C.H., Batcheller, J., Schroeder, K. and Donohue, P., 2015. Burnout and resilience among nurses practicing in high-intensity settings. American Journal of Critical Care, 24(5), pp.412-420.

Swider, S.M., Berkowitz, B., Valentine-Maher, S., Zenk, S.N. and Bekemeier, B., 2017. Engaging communities in creating health: Leveraging community benefit. Nursing Outlook, 65(5), pp.657-660.