Answer

Developing a shared Vision

The two chosen issues or challenges include staff shortage and poor job satisfaction rates resulting in turnover.

            The hospital is facing the issue of staff shortage as it only has 30 registered nurses, which is overwhelming when one co    nsiders the over 500-bed capacity. In fact, this is an issue because any health care setting has nurses performing the core function of providing patients with round the clock care. The understaffing means that the hospital often finds itself with discontent staff members as available physicians are ordered to perform nurse-assigned tasks such as constant administration of medication and helping patients maintain cleanliness. This has meant that the staff, including nurses, are overworked and often worn out. The patients have found themselves with no one to attend to them despite the available nurses operating in shifts, which in turn has given the hospital bad image. The second issue facing the organization involves poor job satisfaction rates resulting in turnover. This has been an issue for sometime despite the organization’s attempts to recruit additional staff members. However, the trend has persisted as the hospital finds itself face the prospect of understaffing in all departments. The poor job satisfaction rates is associated with understaffing, which has its roots in low number of registered nurses available. Members from other departments find themselves involved in duties that were not part of the original negotiation, and this has contributed to a poorly satisfied workforce (Burns et al, 2011). The outcome is that the organization has faced poor ratings in the area of job satisfaction and members of staff throughout the organization often opt to look for greener pastures. These are the two key issues the health care organization is facing.

            The impact of the two issues is profound on my department and throughout the organization. As the chief nursing officer, the low number of registered nurses translates to overstretched human resources and often the department finds it impossible to manage the available nurses. Worth noting, is that management is all about allocating the required resources at the right place and time (Walshe & Smith, 2011). With the low number of registered nurses, it means that allocating resources is challenging and some areas or functions are left out to make up for the numbers. The outcome is that the understaffed department often provides unsatisfactory services, and this is reflected in the number of disgruntled nurses as well as patients. Simply put, the understaffed department leads to poor outcome as the services provided are of poor quality. Poor job satisfaction characterizes the department as nurses feel they are overworked. This has seen the morale low and turnover worryingly high.

            Improved communication is key to improving the conditions facing the nursing department. More so, communication is a key ingredient to collaboration as well as teamwork, which is vital in a department that is understaffed (Katz & Miller, 2013). Increased or improved communication means that all stakeholders associated with hospital share information on the state of the organization, and respond according with respect to making improvements. For instance, communication can help to improve the department by ensuring that top management and the human resources department is aware of the challenges understaffing is causing. Through communication, it can be explained to these stakeholders the discontent among available nurses as well as high turnover throughout the organization. Communication can also help by explaining to the management the need for equal distribution of human resources in all departments including nursing, as it would mean massive problems in the hospital are avoided. As well, collaboration and teamwork could help improve the department because the issue lies in human resources, which are will always be scarce. As such, it becomes crucial that the available nurses collaborate and work as a team to help one another in accomplishing the functions. In addition, collaboration and teamwork can help to retain employees in an organization because it creates a positive environment that employees enjoy working in.

            The first example of a technique used to foster inclusion in organizations involves treating equitably (Johnson Cornell University, 2012). Often, employees feel alienated due to inequitable distribution of resources, pay, as well as promotional opportunities. In fact, an employee who perceives that she or he is overlooked will assume that they are less valued and perhaps not part of the organization. As such, it becomes vital that members are treated equitably in all areas to ensure that the sense of belonging spreads throughout the organization. The second technique used to foster and improve communication as well as collaboration involves encouraging sharing, input, as well as dialogue in the organization (Nemeth, 2008). This technique is crucial because it is grounded in the fact that communication is not one-way, and increased communication leads to collaboration. Thus, the goal should be to encourage dialogue and sharing among members because such developing such a culture means that all members contribute in different ways. In fact, the technique of sharing should be part of goals and objectives of an organization, as it ensured development of a positive and productive environment.