Question

I work as a operating room nurse. Provide an example in which managerial decision making has positively or negatively affected you? How did the personal decision-making styles used by managers apply to the situation? What is your take away from the example you provided after your reading about managerial decision making in this topic?

Answer 1

An example of a managerial decision in the operating room is the allocation of surgical cases throughout the day by the chief resident. The chief resident aims to reduce the patient waiting time and maximum utilization of operating room and schedule the cases. Previously when the surgical case was scheduled by the Overall operation theatre supervisor. She is responsible for inspection of OR, anesthesia inspection, preoperative consultation of specific conditions, arrangements during an emergency or unexpected events, and coordinate with the other departments. She also looks after the safety of patient and staff schedule for the daily cases. But the management decision will not take into account of these specific tasks. They only look after the total scheduled time, turn over time, overutilization time etc. Measures are not taken for the emergency cases which prolonged the working hours of the operating room. This makes the surgeons and OR nurses be under stress and workload.

Personal decision making styles affects the ongoing process. Managerial decision influences the organizational goals and objectives. Decision-making should meet the needs of organization goals and demands. From the above example, I realized that the overall OR supervisor having better knowledge of the ever-changing situation of the OR and to handle the situation compared to the chief resident. The supervisor can make the optimal decision making in the scheduling of daily cases and ensures high quality and patient safety.