Free Custom «The New Policy» Essay Paper

The main solution to solve the problem of shortage of nurses is to incorporate a new staffing matrix. This new policy will be intended to improve the existing recruitment and maintenance policies for nurses. Poor recruitment policy has resulted in increased nurse turn- over, reduced nursing satisfaction as well as developing a poor working environment. To evaluate the plan effectively, it is vital to consider methods and variables that are necessary in the process of implementing the solution plan.

Methods and Variables

Implementation of the new policy will highly affect the staff. Thus, it is important to survey staff’s attitudes and contributions before the policy is implemented fully. This will help to show the rate of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction before and after the initial change of the policy. Improving the recruitment matrix will play a great role in enhancing staff’s satisfaction. Before the incorporation of the policy, it was found out that most nurses were overload. As a result, they were working for long hours (Zarea, 2009). This made it hard for them to balance work and personal life. This led to dissatisfaction compelling many nurses to leave the profession. Notably, poor recruitment method harbored the process of employing more staff leading to shortages (House, 1978). After the implementation of the policy, evaluation process shows that most nurses are satisfied as responsibilities are shared making them enjoy their work.

In order to obtain nurses turn-over rates before and after the change, methods such as questionnaires and surveys can be applied (Cook, 2011). The staff has to be directly involved as they are the main determinant of the rate at which nurses are leaving or joining the profession.

Before the change, the rate of patient surveys was low. This is simply because, shortage of nurses resulted in limited number of patients who can be give services per day. However, after the initial change, the rate of discharge rose steadily (Zarea, 2009). The change contributed in the rise of the number of nurses who were in a position to attend to higher number of patients.

Certain variables will play a big in influencing the outcome of the plan. Some of the variables include the following: firstly, staff attitude and perceptions. The staff’s perception towards the new policy may be positive or negative (Buchan & Aiken, 2008). Attitude will lead to development of certain perception. Thus, it was found out that if the staff’s view the new solution positively, the outcomes will be favorable and vice versa.

The second variable is the patient attitudes and perceptions. Patient may also affect the success of the new policy (Rossi et al., 2004). They may decide to be cooperative or not. The number of staffs may be increased with the decrease in the number of patients who seek the services of that health care. As a result, the effort to raise the working environment will not serve the intended purposes of serving the patients effectively (Rajapaksa & Rothstein, 2009).

Finally, the rate of nursing staff turn-over will also play a major role in the implementation plan. With the changed policy governing recruitment of new staff and maintaining them, it is likely that the rate of nurses leaving the profession will reduce significantly (Cook, 2011). Nursing turn-over will reduce simply because their job satisfaction will be increased as the working conditions become more rewarding.

To evaluate the project outcomes, it is necessary to develop participants and assessment tools. Some of the most appropriate tools include surveys, questionnaires, and PowerPoint slides, pre and post tests, and interviews as well teaching materials. Through these methods, staff will be able to participate effectively in implementation of the new policy and give their feedbacks.