Job Description in Pediatric Emergency Department - Essay Example

? Job and Appraisal Job and Appraisal Introduction Job is a list of the general tasks and responsibilities in a particular position. It may also include information about the qualifications required for the job, the remuneration the person gets, and to whom and how one reports. The benefit of job description is that it ensures that a person is well aware about his or her own duties and responsibilities in a job. That way, it will help in improving communication and cooperation among the members of an organization as each member possesses clear insight about the roles they play. My Job Description I have my job in Pediatric Emergency Department. I received a job description when I joined the department. According to the job description, the important duties involved performing physical examinations and giving medicines prescribed by the doctor, encouraging and comforting the little children to conduct necessary tests and treatments procedures smoothly, starting intravenous medications, collecting samples for laboratory tests, and educating the parents about how to take care of their children. Most of the tasks I do in my department are included in the job description in receiving on joining. However, there are certain other tasks which we undertake when necessary. For example, when there is no unit clerk or secretary, it becomes necessary for me to do secretarial and clerical tasks like entering orders in the computer, faxing, and paging. Another important task is the cleaning of the room. There are times when the cleaning service becomes unavailable for immediate cleaning of the room. In such emergencies, it becomes necessary to clean the room for immediate use. Yet another task that deserves to be mentioned is the stocking of supplies. In fact, stocking of essential supplies is very vital in an emergency department. Proper stocking helps nurses save a considerable amount of time. When equipment and supplies are not easily available, there will be an imbalance in the delivery of care. Though it is the duty of stocking technician to take care of stock levels, there are times when the nurses are made to go directly and get the supplies. This results in considerable loss of time. Employment Promotion In fact, the promotion process is rather complicated in my department. Selecting employees for promotion involves a lot of factors ranging from performance, politics, and interest. When there is a vacancy, some employees refuse to apply for the same despite their qualification because they hate to take up management positions which involve responsibility. On the other hand, some less qualified employees manage to get a promotion through influence. Admittedly, the first reason why the employees are not seriously concerned about promotion is that there is a nurses’ union which ensures that the nurses are protected from unreasonable termination. One can see that these things go against the ‘best practice guidelines’. It is pointed out in the Nursing Best Practice Guidelines (n. d.) that organizations/nursing employers should establish such organizational practices that foster mutual responsibility and accountability by individual nurses and organizational leaders to ensure a safe work environment. First of all, one can see that the organization has failed to make a close and cohesive relationship with the employees. As a result, the qualified do not feel the responsibility or accountability to take up management positions. Moreover, through politics, the management often gives promotion to less qualified ones. This seriously affects the quality of the care offered. It is clearly mentioned in Best Practice Guidelines 3.2 that it is the responsibility of organizations/nursing employers to employ qualified individuals with knowledge and expertise in leading roles and for training and education programs. Pay for Performance Compensation Program In fact, there is no pay for performance program. Instead, the hospital has a standardized salary system. In this system, the salary will be raised even if the performance evaluation by the manager is average or below average. This is so mainly because there is a nurses’ union which takes up such matters for the nurses. However, there is an incentive program for those who are ready to gain higher qualifications. For example, nurses who pass certifications like Certification in Pediatric Nursing (CPN), Certification in emergency Nursing (CEN), and Certification in Pediatric Emergency Nursing (CPEN) get monetary rewards ranging from $ 1000 to $ 2000 depending on the employment status. They also offer to refund the examination fee. In fact, this plays a great role in motivating the staffs to achieve better qualification. Staffing Regulation In fact, the organization has a Staffing Office. This staffing office is responsible to see that there are enough nurses and technicians for each unit. In fact, the emergency department is short of staff. As a result, the department gets help from travelers and the scheduler in the emergency department has to always send a needs list in advance. Presently, this system works because there is a meeting of charge nurses of all units in the staffing office during every shift and the meeting decides the number of people to be allocated to each unit. It is this meeting which decides which staffs are to be called in for the next shift and which staffs are to be spared. As the emergency department is understaffed, it always pays shift bonuses. So, it becomes necessary to hire more staff for the Pediatric Emergency Department. Ideal Job Description The main position responsibilities of a pediatric nurse are so many in numbers. The first one is to provide age and culturally appropriate care to the patients. As the patients are children, it becomes necessary for a nurse to ensure that the patients are given comfort and encouragement through words and actions so that examinations and procedures can be conducted smoothly. Secondly, it is the duty of the nurse to assess, observe the condition of the patient and report the same. Furthermore, it will also be the responsibility of nurse to explain treatment procedures to the parents or guardians of the patient so that they give consent to treatment. Also, there are other duties like recording vital signs and keeping accurate records of the same, giving and checking intravenous infusions, reacting quickly in case of emergencies, administering medicines and injections, and actively taking part in multidisciplinary teamwork. In such cases, it may become necessary to undertake the tasks of other nurses when they are overloaded with work. However, as per the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Emergency Department Planning and Resource Guidelines (2007), emergency departments are supposed to have adequate numbers of staffs and they should have sufficient knowledge and skills to deal with those who seek care. Performance Appraisal In the case of appraisal, there are various factors to be considered. First of all, the evidence of substantial education should be considered. For example, qualifications like Certification in Pediatric Nursing (CPN), Certification in emergency Nursing (CEN), and Certification in Pediatric Emergency Nursing (CPEN) can be considered as excellent benchmarks. The second point is the competence in management and administration. This shows the staffs’ willingness and ability to take appropriate decisions and act independently in emergencies. Thirdly, the nurse’s ability to accurately follow the standards of emergency nursing practice should be assessed. As per the CENA Practice Standards for the Emergency Nursing Specialist (2007), some other factors are communication, teamwork, leadership and ethical standards. Conclusion In total, most of the activities done in the emergency department are included in the job description. However, due to lack of staff, there are certain extra activities which the staffs are made to do. It is highly necessary to increase the number of staffs in the emergency department so that activities like entering the computer and cleaning the room. These problems can be overcome by increasing the number of staff. References American College of Emergency Physicians. (2007). Emergency Department Planning and Resource Guidelines. Policy Statement. Retrieved from www.acep.org/content.aspx?id=33620 CENA. (2007). Practice Standards for the Emergency Nursing Specialist. Retrieved from http://cena.org.au/CENA/Documents/Standards.pdf Nursing Best Practice Guidelines. (n. d.). RNAO. Retrieved from http://pda.rnao.ca/content/recommendations-6 Read More