Nurses are the frontline of healthcare. When they work efficiently and cohesively, healthcare environments thrive and provide high-quality patient care and positive treatment outcomes. In a healthcare environment, the productivity of nursing teams directly affects the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery. When the productivity of teams is high, it ensures that patients receive effective and timely care. This results in better patient satisfaction and treatment outcomes.
With baby boomers aging, there is a whole generation of people with complex healthcare needs. Hence, there is an increase in demand for healthcare. This, in turn, puts pressure on the healthcare systems. That is one of the reasons that nursing teams need to focus on productivity. That way, teams can meet the rising demand of the patient population without compromising the quality of care. Furthermore, when nurses are productive, using available resources within the healthcare organization becomes more efficient and cost-effective.
If you are keen to work behind the scenes as a nurse and ensure your healthcare organization uses resources efficiently and nursing teams have high levels of productivity, think of enrolling in an advanced degree program specifically designed for nurses who want to assume leadership roles in administration and management. One of the advanced degrees you can consider pursuing is an MBA. Once you understand the benefits of an MBA for nurses, you will not think twice about enrolling in such a program. This degree not only helps you prepare for leadership roles, but also opens doors to new career opportunities that are financially more lucrative.
Most leadership roles require a master’s degree. So, an MBA is just what is needed to bring about a change in the healthcare delivery process. Spring Arbor University has an MSN/MBA program that allows nurses who want to advance their nursing and business skills to develop their clinical nursing skills and get an in-depth understanding of nursing administration. This dual degree program is designed for nurses who are currently employed. It allows them to manage their personal and work lives without a rigid study schedule.
How management principles help nursing teams
When you use the principles of management that you learned during your MBA, you will be able to organize and lead nursing teams more effectively. Not only will you be able to standardize procedures in the organization, but you will also be able to have a skill mix to ensure efficiency and productivity.
More often than not, nurses face challenges that affect their productivity. For instance, if there is an influx of many patients at once, prioritizing resources to treat the most in need can be an issue. This can lead to high levels of stress among the nurses. Chronic stress is one of the main reasons for burnout among nurses, according to the American Nurses Association. A survey conducted by the Association in 2020 revealed that nearly 62% of nurses in the US suffer from burnout.
When you apply the principles of management within your department, you can help nursing teams overcome obstacles that hamper their productivity. That helps to reduce stress and ensure that nurses are productive and can respond to patients’ needs efficiently and on time.
Applying management principles also boosts communication between nurses and other healthcare providers. This fosters collaboration and ensures seamless delivery of care. As a result, you can expect greater patient satisfaction.
Nurse productivity and treatment outcomes
As mentioned earlier, the productivity of nursing teams has a significant effect on the outcomes of treatments. When nurses are productive, they tend to respond quickly to the needs of patients, administer medication on time, and ensure they provide nursing intervention when the need arises.
When patients receive efficient and timely care leads to improved clinical outcomes. Furthermore, patients and their families will be satisfied with the care provided.
It is also important to note that when nurses are productive, they are more careful. As a result, it boosts patient safety as the chances of errors reduce. Productive nurses carry out prompt patient assessments and ensure that critical information about each patient is communicated to other team members and healthcare providers.
Addressing nursing team challenges with management principles
In any healthcare setting, nursing teams face challenges that can affect their productivity and the level and quality of patient care. As a nurse manager or supervisor, you can adopt the knowledge and expertise acquired through an MBA to streamline processes and make the nursing environment more efficient.
When you implement management strategies, you can help nurses overcome obstacles and boost their productivity. For example, if you create a proper shift roster and distribute workload among the shift nurses, there will be an appropriate number of nurses to handle patient volumes. Or, you can create distinct communication changes for the flow of information and collaboration between team members.
Of course, you will have to use the data analysis skills you learned during your MBA to evaluate and assess existing challenges and develop unique and effective ways to overcome them.
You can even use supportive management practices to ensure a healthy work-life balance, address the issue of burnout among nurses, provide opportunities for skill development, and ensure nurses have access to resources for overall well-being.
Here are some of the ways you can use management principles to help nursing teams overcome issues and challenges at work:
Standardize procedures
When you study a management program, you learn the importance of standardizing processes in the healthcare environment. It works to do away with unnecessary variations and helps to streamline workflows. As a result, it minimizes inefficiency and allows nurses to work more effectively. This saves time, and nurses accomplish more during their shifts.
Another benefit of standardization is sticking to evidence-based practices. Adhering to consistent protocols and not deviating from them prevents medication errors and infections. It also reduces the risk of errors. So, when nurses follow standardized procedures across all shifts, it boosts patient safety.
It is best to assess the current protocols and workflows. That will allow you to identify areas that require standardization. Make sure you create step-by-step workflows for all nursing activities. When you implement the standardization process, you need to educate and train the nurses. You can use simulations and hands-on training to ensure nurses understand each step and know what to do in different situations and scenarios.
Implement evidence-based practices
Studying dual management and nursing degrees teaches you the value of evidence-based practices. These are practices developed through research and clinical expertise while keeping patients’ preferences in mind. This ensures that nurses use the best available evidence for patient care, which leads to optimal patient outcomes.
As stated earlier, evidence-based practices ensure that the delivery of care is standardized. Regardless of the patient’s gender, race, and economic status, they receive the same quality of care. It even allows you to address healthcare disparities.
You can create guidelines for medication administration, infection prevention, and patient assessment. When there are strict guidelines that nurses have to follow, it ensures high-quality care. However, you also need a system to monitor compliance, or having these guidelines is futile. Also, you should revisit these guidelines to update them whenever new evidence becomes available.
Create a skill mix
You need to have nursing teams with the right skill mix. That means each team of nurses should have different levels of nursing experience and expertise. That way, each team has the right nursing staff with the necessary skills to meet the diverse needs of patients.
When you have a team with balanced skills, it makes it easy to delegate tasks. More experienced nurses can focus on the complex needs of patients, while junior nurses can take care of routine care activities. When you have nursing teams like this, it improves the efficiency of the team and also creates opportunities for mentoring and skill development.
It is best to evaluate the skill mix in nursing teams so that you identify the gaps. You can do a SWOT analysis for each team to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. That way, you can determine which areas need improvement. Consider each team member’s experience, qualifications, and competencies. That will enable you to see if the existing teams have the right skill mix or if the mix is skewed.
Embrace nursing technologies
To get nursing technologies, you have to convince decision-makers within the organization that they improve nursing productivity and enhance the quality of patient care. Of course, you need to explore the different technologies to determine their effectiveness. For instance, you can use electronic health records to get real-time information about patients’ health. These records have the medical history, current diagnosis, tests, care plans, lab results, and more to help nurses make informed decisions.
You may also want to choose task management automation. This allows nurses to automate routine tasks, like scheduling and reminders. As a result, it frees the nurses to focus on more important patient care activities. This, in turn, improves productivity.
Another nursing technology that is gaining popularity is telehealth. This technology allows nurses to provide care beyond traditional healthcare settings. It also helps to address healthcare disparities in communities. You can use telehealth to monitor patients remotely or conduct virtual consultations if patients have mobility issues or cannot come for in-person visits. It also allows nurses to collaborate with doctors and specialists to consult on complex cases or where patients require expert advice as they are immobile or far away.
Nursing technologies allow you to provide prompt and efficient care to patients within and outside traditional healthcare settings. They foster collaboration and enhance communication between teams.
Promote effective communication between team members
When it comes to nursing teams, you need to ensure effective communication. When teams communicate, it helps to coordinate patient care, promote patient safety, and enhance productivity. When teams have clear communication, you can be certain that information will filter down. It also becomes easier to delegate tasks and ensure team members share critical patient updates and information promptly.
When all team members have the details about patients’ conditions, care plans, and changes in their status, it prevents gaps in the care of patients. As a result, all patients have a seamless healthcare experience. Also, you do not have to worry about errors or misunderstandings, as every team member knows critical patient data and can make quick decisions to avert problems.
You can use communication skills training to communicate within teams. Emphasize the importance of communication and the importance of sharing the minor details. Encourage nurses to communicate openly and respectfully. This will ensure each team learns to trust and collaborate without problems. When information flows through the team, it creates a sense of shared purpose. This leads to unity and boosts team morale.
Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration
When you are studying to become a nurse, one of the things you will learn is interdisciplinary teamwork. Nurses cannot function in silos. They must collaborate with one another and other healthcare providers, such as doctors, specialists, and therapists. This ensures holistic patient care.
The principles of management stress the importance of teamwork for organizational success. You can use these principles to promote teamwork and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams. You can do this by ensuring each team member knows their roles and responsibilities. That will prevent confusion and ensure accountability. Ensure that team members know and understand that their contribution helps improve the quality of patient care and team productivity.
If you feel that collaboration is an issue in an interdisciplinary team, do not be afraid to use education and training to boost teamwork. The training can make different team members understand the roles and expertise of other healthcare professionals. It allows them to value and appreciate the expertise each team member brings to patient care.
You can use these management strategies and techniques to support and empower nursing teams under your supervision. This will help you create a culture that supports and values nursing staff, and your organization can use resources more meaningfully to ensure better productivity. Using the right management strategies will help you ensure better patient outcomes, and the nursing staff will be more productive. It will result in greater job satisfaction.