Introduction
In general, there are numerous ways for healthcare facilities, whether commercial or non-profit, to improve their processes and achieve better performance. In many situations, hospital leaders and managers are unaware of the problems their units face, which creates additional barriers to addressing challenges and concerns. At the same time, once identified, an issue can be addressed by applying evidence-based approaches and implementing solutions approved by all parties involved and expected to benefit the organization. The following paper will discuss the problem of workplace inefficiency caused by high employee workload in a for-profit clinic and explore possible solutions.
Identifying a Current Issue
The healthcare sphere is one of the most important because it serves people and addresses their physical and mental health issues. Unfortunately, many medical facilities face various challenges that limit their ability to provide high-quality services to all patients who demand them. One such concern is poor communication between managers and employees, which is precisely the issue the clinic in question faces.
The facility’s nurse manager does not adequately explain the cardiology unit’s goals, as recommended by Sullivan (2018). The organization’s key financial goals and the ways all employees can contribute to maintaining the common vision and achieving the objectives are not shared. As a result, the staff is unaware of these valuable elements and cannot be motivated enough to contribute more to the clinic’s growth and development.
Another weakness to be identified in the clinic is the inefficiency caused by the staff’s high workload. The selected facility is currently operating at full capacity, and some employees are tasked with too many activities that could be given to other workers or that are not even included in their contracts. For example, a single full-time physician performs procedures and rounds in the morning and evening, sees around 12 patients in the clinic, and is responsible for reading cardiac stress tests and performing ultrasounds. This employee is required to work on weekends, even though he is not contracted to do so. This is only one example of how the workload is ineffectively distributed among medical employees.
Literature Review Related to the Issue
Before discussing potential resolutions and explaining how the clinic can improve its operations and processes to address the identified issues, it is essential to explain why it must pay close attention to these problems. There are many academic papers exploring the negative effects of poor communication between managers and medical workers, as well as the consequences of high, unevenly distributed workloads.
According to Fowler, Robbins, and Lucero (2021), “in the health care scenario, the manager and nurse relationship is pivotal in managing the work environment, engaging the nurses, lowering the occurrence of adverse events, and improving quality measures and patient outcomes” (p. 1487). It is the nurse manager’s task to inform nurses and other medical workers about their expected contributions to organizational success, the ways they can achieve them, and how their actions can support the facility’s overall vision (Sullivan, 2018). If this communication is present and can be judged adequate and of good quality, the facility can improve its performance.
At the same time, negative consequences are predicted if a nurse manager fails to disclose this information and share their vision with employees. Researchers indicate that “staff nurses and nurse managers should communicate effectively to eliminate individual variances and create a nice working atmosphere to fulfill the patient’s expectations to achieve the overall goals and objectives” (Alosaimi & Alosami, 2022, p. 25). Otherwise, employees can be confused about their duties, lack appreciation and trust, and fail to use the best strategies to improve the facility’s performance. Their job satisfaction and motivation will decline, ultimately affecting patient satisfaction.
Further, healthcare organizations also suffer severe consequences of improper workload distribution. For instance, Kovacs and Lagarde (2022) describe how motivation and the ability to provide high-quality care are reduced in medical employees who have too many tasks and responsibilities. They may begin to feel severe pressure and doubt whether their efforts and contributions are adequately rewarded and worth the financial and emotional cost.
Dolev et al. (2022) further highlight the direct relationship between nurse and physician work overload, burnout, and tiredness, and increased rates of medical errors. Growing turnover levels are also associated with this issue, as are declining client satisfaction (Dolev et al., 2022). Consequently, this literature review proves the acute need for the clinic to address these two concerns.
Proposed Solutions
The reviewed articles propose several solutions that could eliminate the two problems. From the nurse manager’s standpoint, they lack the proper education and skills to promptly inform staff of the listed details. According to Fowler et al. (2021), this is a common disadvantage of nursing education, as such programs can fail to address the role-specific communication competencies required of these professionals and to support their development.
Therefore, the researcher suggests that medical facilities consider this and organize high-quality, relevant training interventions for their nurse managers (Fowler et al., 2021). Thus, it is advised that the selected clinic find a suitable educational program for its nurse manager. It can be short and include only basic information, but it will certainly improve communication between the professional and other employees. The manager will understand why it is critical to describe what is expected from each worker, how these results can be achieved, and how they will contribute to the facility’s overall success.
Other studies also emphasize the value of workplace education. For instance, Alosaimi and Alosami (2022) find that, in some facilities, nurse leaders with higher educational attainment and access to training demonstrate stronger communication skills. These statements should be considered when addressing the problem from a managerial perspective.
The clinic’s leadership should clearly explain why additional training is required for the nursing manager, so the latter is motivated to complete it and then utilize the knowledge and competencies gained. Lastly, integrating the employee perspective also allows for common interactive training sessions for staff and their managers. They can discuss how they can improve their communication, clarify what they expect from it, and outline the initial steps.
Furthermore, it is critical to consider the employee’s perspective regarding work overload. In the clinic setting, employees are the most precious resource, and their mental and physical well-being and satisfaction play a critical role in patients’ satisfaction with the services they receive (Sullivan, 2018). Increased retention, job performance, satisfaction, productivity, and engagement are achieved when workers are motivated and do not experience burnout from high workloads.
Therefore, it can be proposed to shift workloads and distribute responsibilities and working hours more effectively. For instance, using a medical records team for minor tasks, such as entering new patient information and requesting historical visit records, can help relieve the entire workflow. Further, the local LPN also has several roles, and shifting between them can be confusing. It is better if she fully takes on the role of nurse, and CNAs become responsible for rooming patients and other tasks.
As mentioned above, the only full-time physician also had difficulty performing all the duties, so allowing him to rest from echocardiogram readings one day per week can reduce his workload. Further, Addis et al. (2023) emphasize the value of time management education in enhancing staff’s ability to complete tasks more quickly and efficiently. According to Paulsen (2020), it is also extremely helpful for strengthening workplace relationships and promoting collaboration and team-building. When employees feel supported by peers and know they can offer assistance, they are more motivated and experience less stress.
Conclusion
To conclude, there are effective ways to introduce the relevant changes in the identified clinical setting. Education for the nurse manager will improve communication and ensure that staff members are aware of the organization’s financial goals and their personal contribution to achieving the common objectives. Further, a more advanced distribution of the workload, along with time management training, can lead to improved performance and greater patient and worker satisfaction.
References
Addis, B. A., Gelaw, Y. M., Eyowas, F. A., Bogale, T. W., Aynalem, Z. B., & Guadie, H. A. (2023). “Time wasted by health professionals is time not invested in patients“: Time management practice and associated factors among health professionals at public hospitals in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: A multicenter mixed method study. Frontiers in Public Health, 11.
Alosaimi, S., & Alosami, H. (2022). Communication between nursing manager and nursing staff for the development of nursing work in Riyadh Region. Journal of Nursing and Health Science, 11(6), 25-35.
Dolev, T., Zubedat, S., Manor, I., Bloch, B., Blondheim, O., & Avital, A. (2022). Differential impact of work overload on physicians’ attention: A comparison between residential fields. Journal of Patient Safety, 18(6), 971–978.
Fowler, K. R., Robbins, L. K., & Lucero, A. (2021). Nurse manager communication and outcomes for nursing: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(6), 1486–1495.
Kovacs, R., & Lagarde, M. (2022). Does high workload reduce the quality of healthcare? Evidence from rural Senegal. Journal of Health Economics, 82.
Sullivan, E. (2018). Effective leadership and management in nursing (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.