Question

The Challenge: Vickie Lemmon, RN, MSN Director of Clinical Strategies, Operations WellPoint, Inc., Ventura, CA Healthcare managers today are faced with numerous and complex issues that pertain to providing quality services for patients within a resource-scarce environment. Stress levels among staff can escalate when problems are not resolved, leading to a decrease in morale, productivity, and quality service. This was the situation I encountered in my previous job as an administrator for California Children Services (CCS). When I began my tenure as the new CCS administrator, staff expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with staffing, workload, and team communications. This was evidenced by high staff turnover, lack of teamwork, customer complaints, unmet deadlines for referral and enrollment cycle times, and poor documentation. The team was in crisis, characterized by infighting, blaming, lack of respectful communication, and lack of commitment to program goals and objectives. Because I had not worked as a case manager in this program, it was hard for me to determine how to address the problems the staff presented to me. I wanted to be fair but thought that I did not have enough information to make immediate changes. My challenge was to lead this team to greater compliance with state-mandated performance measures.

QUESTION

How would you lead a new team of nurses to greater compliance with state-mandated performance measures? Use the Table to rank your choices on the actions you would take. Why did you rank your choices the way you did and why did you rank your first choice (#1) as your first choice? Explain your rationale. Select your best option and design an implementation plan and an evaluation plan.

Answer 1

The following table shows the measures taken to lead a new team of nurses to greater compliance with state-mandated performance measures.

options	advantages	disadvantages	rank
Implementing the state-mandatory optimal nurse to patient ratio	quality care for patients lower stress levels for nursing professionals leading to the deliverance of quality service Decrease in rate of patient mortality and avoidable mistakes. Increased job satisfaction	None	2
Proper staff management with a stress-free environment	Increase in staff productivity quality care for patients stress-free nursing professionals with subsequent deliverance of quality service Without proper management all other measures are ineffective.	None	1
Ongoing continuing professional development/education for nursing staff members	Empowering nursing professionals with new technologies in nursing.	None	3
Industry-standard proper remuneration, rewards/incentives	Boosts the morale of professionals. increased job satisfaction	None	4