Nursing Care Management: Communicating about Change - Essay Example

"Nursing Care Management: Communicating about Change" is a decent example of a paper on care.
Organizations ought to implement specific changes geared towards aligning their objectives to the changing dynamics of the modern world. In other words, organizations must implement change strategies to accommodate global current changes, especially in technology. Changes are accompanied by significant changes in workflow. Such changes are often controversial within organizations due to the high investments incurred in terms of resources. Therefore, communicating the change in an effective manner is imperative (De Vries, Bakker-Pieper and Oostenveld, 2010). This paper describes the approaches to use to communicate effectively, noting differences in communication as a nurse leader and as a manager in an organization when faced with opposition to change. Subsequently, this paper elucidates how to integrate my knowledge of power and political acumen for successful communication.

Nurse leaders and managers communicate change differently due to their different skills in leadership and management (Huber, 2013). Before outlining the approaches to use in communicating change as a nurse leader and as a manager, it is of significance to explicate the difference between nurse leadership and management. A nurse leader in most times operates devoid of delegated or assigned power (Huber, 2013). To delineate this, a leader's influence is unofficial and originates from being entrusted by workmates. The influence of a manager, on the other hand, is official; meaning he or she has assigned roles and responsibilities within the organization.

After identifying the need for change, it is important to communicate the change in a professional manner to everyone involved. Welcoming objections from the nurses is also important and this should be accompanied by offering an explanation of why their oppositions and doubts are extraneous (Groysberg and Slind, 2012). According to Zimmermann (2002), "Successful leaders have been described as motivating, empowering, mentoring, optimistic, and supportive" (p. 8). One of the approaches to communicate therefore includes building. Building trust ensures the nurses have confidence with the leader to receive support, motivation, and mentoring when implementing the change. As Zimmermann (2002) notes, "It is human nature for people to follow those whom they see as being able to provide them with what they want or need" (p. 8).

Since a manager's role is official, he or she is in a better position to co-ordinate and manage resources. As a nurse manager, it is vital to assure the employees that they would receive support in terms of resources when communicating the change. This is why the promotion of dialogue is important (Groysberg and Slind, 2012). Debating on the need for change helps convince employees to adopt the change. Listening well to the concerns of those objecting is also important as it gives the manager an opportunity to address their concerns.  Managers have also better 'people skills' and hence encouraging the employees to work as a team would help to implement the change (Zimmermann, 2002).  

In integrating power and political acumen in communicating change, nurse leaders and managers should include employees in all activities within the organization and treat them as partners. This makes them feel motivates and secure in their jobs. This translates to job satisfaction and hence the development of constructive and trustworthy relationships. Having such relationships makes it easier for leaders and managers to receive the necessary support from their colleagues when communicating change, as well as its implementation (Huber, 2013). In a nutshell, there are a number of approaches that nurse managers and leaders ought to employ in communicating change. These include building trust with the employees and also promoting dialogue. Dialogue ensures that all employees understand their roles and responsibilities in implementing the change.