Advanced HealthCare Management - Assignment Example

Motivational Problems al Affiliation Motivational Problems Discuss two motivation problems and their potential solutions. There were three (3) clearly identified causes of motivational problems in the health care working environment as noted by Burns, Bradley, & Weiner (2012), as follows: (1) inadequate definition of the desired performance; (2) impediments to employee performance; and (3) inadequate performance-reward linkages (p. 108). One motivational problem, impediments to employee performance could potentially be derived from understaffing.

There has been several reported incidences where nurses have complained of being overworked. As such, performance is eventually hampered. Likewise, the understaffing and being overworked could result to errors (medication errors, documentation errors, and even errors in the effective deliver y of patient care); as well as low morale, low productivity, job dissatisfaction, and high turnover. As reported in a news article, “a study of physicians in Massachusetts released today indicates poor RN-to-patient ratios in hospitals are resulting in significant harm and even death for patients.

According to the survey, physicians rank understaffing of registered nurses as the biggest problem in Massachusetts hospitals directly affecting patient care” (Massachusetts Nurses Association, 2005, par. 1).The proposed solution to this motivational problem are as follows: job redesign through (1) a review of the staffing requirements based on the number of patients that are regularly confined in the health care setting; (2) determining the most appropriate nurse-patient ratio; (3) hire new or temporary nurses as deemed needed to addressing understaffing concerns, either on a short-term or long-term basis.

Through these recommendations, the root cause of the problem would be determined through identifying the current number of patients who are being attended to, as well as the current supply of nurses in the organization. Current changes in the external environment could have significantly altered the demand and supply of patients and nurses which contributed to the problem.The second motivational problem is inadequate support or resources. For instance, in a nursing unit, there should be some expected level of supplies, equipment, medications, and hospital forms which are critical in undertaking the stipulated responsibilities.

The list could include medical supplies and equipment in the emergency cart, prescribed medications, as well as patients’ charts and forms, among others. If any of these are inadequate, the performance of nurses would be jeopardized in terms of potentially affecting the level and quality of patient care.Therefore, to address this problem, the proposed solutions are as follows: (1) determine the accurate volume and units of supplies, equipment, medications, and other resources on a regular basis which are needed to support and sustain normal operations; and (2) purchase needed resources with appropriate monitoring and adherence to an inventory level to determine re-order points, as required.

It should be emphasized that addressing this dilemma takes collaborative effort in terms of ensuring that the health care organization caters to the needs of the patients through providing high quality of service which could eventually assist in the generation of income for the organization. Inadequate resources could be a potential problem which is related to financial losses; and as such, solution would require the support of management through ensuring that resources of the organization could support and sustain continued high quality of operations on a longer time frame.

ReferencesBurns, L. B., Bradley, E. H., & Weiner, B. J. (2012). Shortell and Kaluzny’s health care management: Organization design and behavior . Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.Massachusetts Nurses Association. (2005, April 26). Massachusetts Physicians Say Nurse Understaffing Harms Patient Safety, Undermines Quality Care. Retrieved from massnurses.org: http://www.massnurses.org/legislation-and-politics/safe-staffing/p/openItem/908