Benefits of Electronic Medication System
The health care industry is a very wide one and is mainly concerned with providing effective health care services to the patients so as to help them improve the quality of the lives that they lead (Finlay, Rothman & Smith, 2014). However, it is often seen that there are errors or mistakes that are being provided to the patients and this often has catastrophic results (Cresswell et al., 2016). It is precisely in this particular context that the electronic medication system gains significance. This is important since it is seen that year thousands of patients receive wrong kind of medications for the diseases which they are suffering because of the diverse kinds of human errors and it is to overcome this particular problem that the diverse health care organizations are adopting the electronic medication system within their framework (Finlay, Rothman & Smith, 2014). This essay discusses about the benefits which the integration of such a system is likely to provide to health care organizations and also the patients, the change management which would be suitable for the integration of the required technology and finally the leadership style that the health care organizations can follow for bringing about the necessary change.
The electronic medication system provides diverse kinds of benefits not only to the health care organizations and the professionals but also to the patients as well. Firstly, the use of this particular innovation helps the health care organizations and also the professionals who are related to them to reduce the diverse kinds of human errors during the time of providing medication to the patients (Cresswell et al., 2016). Furthermore, the effective use of this particular innovation enhances the efficiency of the registered nurses and other health care professionals during the time of providing medication to the patients during the hospital rounds (King et al., 2014). The use of this particular process at the same time reduces the amount of burnout among the registered nurses and other health care professionals regarding the workload that they need to handle (Shanafelt et al., 2016). In addition to these, the effective use of this particular system improve the quality of care and other related services provided by the registered nurses to the patients and helps them in a significant manner in the processes of clinical governance and also in the diverse kinds of decision making processes (Ohashi et al., 2014). These in short are some of the main reasons why the health care organization under discussion here should integrate this particular innovation for providing effective treatment services to the patients.
Lewin’s Change Management Model
Lewin’s change management model is one of the most commonly models for the process of integrating diverse kinds of changes within the framework of various organizations. The health care organization under discussion here can also take the help of this particular change management model for the purpose of incorporating the electronic medication system within the health care organization. Lewin’s change management model consists of three stages or steps which are necessary for the integration of the diverse kinds of changes within the mould of a particular organization, namely, unfreeze, change and refreeze (Cameron & Green, 2015). These three stages can be seen as the three steps or milestones that a particular organization needs to achieve for the effective integration of a required change (Cameron & Green, 2015).
The nurse leader at the stage of unfreeze will have to analyze the status quo of the health care organization and at the same time make the other nurses aware of the benefits that the use of the electronic medication is likely to provide to them (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). This in short is likely to create the need for the change not only among the nurses but also within the health care organization under discussion here. The required time framework for this particular stage would be approximately one month. The second or the stage of change would require the nurse leader to not only integrate the innovation of electronic medication within the health care organization but at the same time to educate the nurses as regarding the manner in which to effectively utilize this particular innovation for providing better quality of treatment services to the patients (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). This particular milestone is likely to take another one month for its achievement. The final stage would be the stage of refreeze which will require the nurse leader to integrate this particular innovation within the culture of the concerned health care organization so as to achieve the desired outcomes for the achievement of which the change was incorporated within the organization in the first place (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). The achievement of this particular milestone is likely to take one month duration.
The nurse leader for the effective integration of the innovation of electronic medication system within the health care organization can follow the situational style of leadership. The major precept of this particular model is the fact that the use of one particular model of leadership does not suffice the modern day leaders and on the contrary they need to modify their leadership styles on the basis of the merits or the importance of the diverse situations that they are dealing with (McCleskey, 2014). Furthermore, each of these situations, are not only unique but different from each other and does they need to be treated in separate manner (Thompson & Glasø, 2015). The use of this particular leadership is likely to help the nurse leader in a significant manner during the implementation of the desired style since the nurse leader is likely to come across diverse kinds of situations during the implementation of the desired change which he or she will have to resolve in an effective manner for the change to be successful (Thompson & Glasø, 2015).
Leadership Style for Nurse Leaders
The transformational style of leadership is another style of leadership which has gained a significant amount of prominence in the present times (Banks et al., 2016). The major precept of this particular style of leadership is the fact that the diverse leaders needs to lead the followers by example and at the same time take the help of concept of motivation to help the followers to achieve the desired goals (Tepper et al., 2018). However, at the same time it needs to be said that the use of this particular style of leadership would not help the nurse leader in a significant manner during the process of the integration of change since it will help the nurse leader to effectively deal with the diverse situations which he or she is likely to come across during the process of the implementation of the electronic medication system (Banks et al., 2016).
The primary resistance that the nurse leader is likely to face will be from the nurses who are used to the manual method of medication since this will require them to not only change their work practice but also to undergo training (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). However, this can be overcome by making the nurses realize the benefits that the innovation is likely to provide them and also by providing effective training. The second resistance that the change is likely to face is from the patients since even in the present times the patients like to keep manual prescription records and use manual methods (Cameron & Green, 2015). However, this particular resistance can be overcome through making the patients realize about the diverse benefits that the use of such system is likely to provide to them.
To conclude, the use of diverse kinds of innovations within the health care industry has gained significant amount of prominence and they have significantly improved the quality of the health care services provided to the patients. The innovation of electronic medication system is one such innovation which seeks to improve the quality of the medication provided to the patients and thereby to reduce the human errors in the process. However, the integration of this particular innovation within the various health care organizations is likely to require the effective use of diverse change management models and also the effective mitigation of the resistance from not only the patients but also the health care professionals.
References
Banks, G. C., McCauley, K. D., Gardner, W. L., & Guler, C. E. (2016). A meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(4), 634-652.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cresswell, K. M., Mozaffar, H., Lee, L., Williams, R., & Sheikh, A. (2016). Safety risks associated with the lack of integration and interfacing of hospital health information technologies: a qualitative study of hospital electronic prescribing systems in England. BMJ Qual Saf, bmjqs-2015.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. Human Relations, 69(1), 33-60.
Finlay, G. D., Rothman, M. J., & Smith, R. A. (2014). Measuring the modified early warning score and the Rothman index: advantages of utilizing the electronic medical record in an early warning system. Journal of hospital medicine, 9(2), 116-119.
King, J., Patel, V., Jamoom, E. W., & Furukawa, M. F. (2014). Clinical benefits of electronic health record use: national findings. Health services research, 49(1pt2), 392-404.
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.
Ohashi, K., Dalleur, O., Dykes, P. C., & Bates, D. W. (2014). Benefits and risks of using smart pumps to reduce medication error rates: a systematic review. Drug safety, 37(12), 1011-1020.
Shanafelt, T. D., Dyrbye, L. N., Sinsky, C., Hasan, O., Satele, D., Sloan, J., & West, C. P. (2016, July). Relationship between clerical burden and characteristics of the electronic environment with physician burnout and professional satisfaction. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 91, No. 7, pp. 836-848). Elsevier.
Tepper, B. J., Dimotakis, N., Lambert, L. S., Koopman, J., Matta, F. K., Man Park, H., & Goo, W. (2018). Examining Follower Responses to Transformational Leadership from a Dynamic, Person–Environment Fit Perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 61(4), 1343-1368.
Thompson, G., & Glasø, L. (2015). Situational leadership theory: a test from three perspectives. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(5), 527-544.
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