Build strategy - Assignment Example

Several strategies can be undertaken by this institution to solve this challenge of staff shortages. Importance of building a strategy Strategic planning is vital to any business in order to realize success. A strategic plan incorporates the mission, vision, and creative thinking. It mainly gives a description of the where the company is headed to by giving the details of achieving it. Strategic plans are the expressions of the visions and dreams of successful outcomes (Kaplan & Norton, 2008).

It serves as the design of how a company can achieve its strategic objectives. Strategic planning can be focused on the whole organization or a department (Williams, 2006). For a hospital such as Milton Keynes, the strategy of solving the problem of understaffing will be focused on the entre institution. Objective The objective of this assignment is to build a strategy that can be implemented by Milton Keynes hospital in order to solve the issues related to understaffing. The strategy that will be developed will help the organization solve its immediate staffing problems and ensure that it is sustainable in the long-run.

The strategy must put into consideration the implications of the implementation on the hospital. Such implications include: effect on patient care, increased costs and the ability of the institution to meet nursing needs in the future. Description of the problem The problem of understaffing in hospitals in the United Kingdom is rampant with the nation hospital services naming 26 healthcare institutions as operating below the safe staffing levels. This problem is further highlighted by the failure of sixteen percent of these institutions to come up to the required levels (Swayne et al, 2008).

One of the main contributions of those staffing shortages especially in the nursing profession is due to the aging of the nursing population and the unwillingness of the younger generation to join the nursing profession. Despite in increase of foreign-born professionals in the medical profession, this group cannot meet the rising demand for medical care. The demand for higher pay, a weakening economy and increased medical demand is straining the thin available labor force (Mireille, 2007). Analysis of the problem Difficulties associated with understaffing are worsened by changes in medical care for example novel medical technologies and a reducing average stay in hospital that have contributed to increase in the level of care demanded by patients while they are in medical institutions.

Novel medical technologies facilitate less seriously sick patients to receive medical care in out patient environments instead of inpatient environments. Furthermore, patients who would have spent the early days of recovery in hospitals are being released to nursing institutions or to their homes. The result of these changes in hospitals is that healthcare institutions are experiencing an influx of more patients who require more care. Staffing of healthcare institutions is an issue of concern because of its effects on quality of care and patient safety (Greener, 2009).

Sensitive outcomes, especially those attributable to nursing are one signs of quality of care. It can be defined as the changeable patient or caregiver situation, condition or