Nursing at Maternity Unite - Assignment Example

? Running Head: Nursing Nursing at Maternity Unite Inserts His/her In the age of technology and advancements, the concept of innovation and efficiency has been an increasingly popular phenomenon in both the production and service sector of the countries. Newer procedures and more developed measures of performing the jobs are being undertaken. This paper discusses the job description, performance measures and other related elements of nursing in maternity unit of the medical facility. Nursing at Maternity Unit The designation of nursing in maternity unit is one of the most essential and critical medical services that can be performed by any medical institution. The maternity unit is concerned with performing the practices of postpartum, midwifery and the childbirths and its related services. For almost all the countries around the world, it has become a priority to deliver him high quality services regarding maternity and other departments. Job Description With the increasing revolution in the technology and the rising demands of healthcare sector has resulted into the formation of a suitable job description of nurses in this unit. When I was hired as a nurse in the maternity department of the facility, I was given a job description which included almost all those factors regarding the duties and responsibilities, which I think are essential for a nurse to perform. According to this, I was required to perform the quality nursing process with utmost safety and care. Proper nursing interventions had to be provided during the post and ante partum period, along with managing the cases of mid-trimester abortion and preparing the patients for LSCS gynecological surgeries. Standard precautions have to be taken while performing clinical practices and giving guidelines to the patients (Beyer & Holtzblatt, 1998). Moreover, we, the nurses, according to our job descriptions are required to foster good relations with our staff, patients, their families and every other person who is related to us in some way or the other. Education is the most essential aspect of our job descriptions which maintains that, to be a registered nurse at the maternity unit of the hospital, it is necessary that we have the Midwife/Registered Nurse diploma or a BNS degree. It is also mandatory to hole a current license of the practice and certificate of employment in order to render our services professionally. Moreover, the completion of 3 years of clinical experience has also been made mandatory. Thus, in all the ways and dimensions, does our job description require us to show a professional attitude and maintain a standard of the nursing services (Stanberry, 2000). Recruitment and Selection Process The recruitment and selection of employees, in my opinion, is one of the vital decisions which is undertaken to maintain a good staff. In many countries, the nurses and other hospital staff is recruited very carefully, keeping in view, their quality, education and standards of working in mind. At our facility, the recruitment process requires filling up a form with complete employee profile, identity, education, experiences and other proficiencies. After the processing of this form, the employees are required to submit their references, license of registration, agreements to the terms and conditions and the samples of other documents. After performing other selection essentials, the nurses are hired officially to serve in the maternity department (Ueckert & Prokosch, 2002). The interview process also requires the employees to show the best possible understanding of all the medical concepts of nursing and things related to pregnancy, childbirth, traumas and other conditions. This standard matches the requirements of the nursing ‘best practices’ and aligns the needs of recruiting nurses with the standardized procedure (NHS South East Coast’s Maternity Matters Programme, 2009). Performance Appraisal The performance appraisal of the nurses is undertaken in our hospital at a regular basis. It is believed that utmost care and assurance is to be provided to the patients regarding their treatments and medical services when it comes to the performance at maternity unit. Thus, the nurses are judged for their punctuality, discipline, competence, professionalism, and expertise in every dimension. They are also assessed on the adherence of laws and regulations of the nurses and other clinical practices along with the management of good relations at the hospital with its staff, patients and their families. The knowledge, skills and capabilities of the nurses are appraised in order to identify the potential training and development areas (Beyer & Holtzblatt, 1998). The appraisals are performed by the management, the supervising nurses or senior doctors, who judge the nurses on every aspect of their personal and professional personality. This process of appraising the nurses is normally tied to their compensation and promotion in the organization. It is expected by the senior clinicians and medical experts that the qualified nurses, who are better, trained and developed, will have the better chances to move up the ladder of hierarchy and get better compensation and rewards. In my opinion, the appraisal at one point in time might not provide an accurate reflection of the role and responsibilities and the capabilities that we possess. In order to make it more professional and accurate, it is necessary to keep the nurses and all other employees under constant evaluation so that a regular job specification log is managed and the employee is assessed in a better way (Coiera & Tombs, 1998). Compensation Program We do not have a specific pay for performance program at the hospital for nurses serving in the maternity unit. However this program, if implemented properly, serves as a big motivator for those aspiring nurses who want to build up a good career as well as provide extraordinary services to the people in their field. The pay or the compensation should be tied to the quality and specificity of the services which are being rendered by the nurses. Moreover, they should be made willing to accept this program if they are targeted to be motivated for their jobs at hand. This performance can then, be measured on a weekly or monthly basis. The nurses will have to judge on all the medical cases that they handle and shall have to be seen properly whether they handle these cases with proficiency and professionalism or not (Cooper, Viller & Burmeister, 2009). NY Employment Laws Every country has laws and regulations to manage their healthcare, medical and all other sectors of professionalism. The citizens of the country have to abide by the laws and adhere to the standard policies of the legislation. Similarly, regarding the maternity unit, NY has formed the laws and regulations to align the doctors, nurses, clinicians and all the medical experts through standardized laws and jurisdictions. For example, the female staff at the workplace is protected by the Law on Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. It aims to provide a safety shield for the working women at hospitals and also during special situations such as marriage, pregnancy, sexual harassments and nursing leaves. Then the ECL provides laws regarding the protection of employees against their termination or expiration of employment contract and ensures that anti-discriminatory policies are applied on them. Moreover, the PCR laws also protect the senior and older employees against any sort of discriminatory practice. The Fair Share for Health Care Act is another most significant law which pertains to providing the health care and insurance services to most of the uninsured employees (Queensland Health Office of the Chief Nursing Officer, 2008). According to these laws, our hospital facility needs to provide more benefits to the employees. There has to be a proper provision of the insurance, medical coverage and loan schemes. Moreover, the anti discriminatory policies have to be put into practice in order to ensure a fair working environment. References Beyer, H & Holtzblatt, K (1998). Contextual design: defining customer-centered systems. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, California. Coiera, E & Tombs, V (1998). Communication behaviors in a hospital setting: an observational study. British Medical Journal, vol. 316, no. 7132. NHS South East Coast’s Maternity Matters Programme (2009). Maternity Matters: Choice, access and continuity of care in a safe service. Progress report on NHS South East Coast’s Maternity Matters Programme. Queensland Health Office of the Chief Nursing Officer, (2008). Review of the Nurse Unit Manager Role. Accessed Online. Retrieved from Roslyn Cooper, Stephen Viller, Jay Burmeister, (2009). Observations in a maternity ward Usability considerations for EHRs in an interrupt driven environment. School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland Stanberry, B (2000). Telemedicine: barriers and opportunities in the 21st century. Journal of Internal Medicine, vol. 247, no. 6. Ueckert, FK & Prokosch, HU (2002). Implementing Security and Access Control Mechanisms for an Electronic Healthcare Record. American Medical Informatics Association 2002 Symposium. Read More