System theory
The administration department in a nursing care centre is a department concerned with effective and efficiency of delivery of health care services. This is the department that has the power to ensure that the nursing service delivery runs smoothly within the organization and also identifies problems and provides solutions. The health care organization is seen as an open system that consists of “energy transformations, a dynamic steady state, negative entropy, event cycles, negative feedback, differentiation, integration, and coordination, and equifinality” (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010). There are factors that affect the provision of services in a healthcare centre and they include input factors, throughput factors, and output factors. The problem that is facing the administration department is the shortage of nurses within the care centre leading to provision of inadequate nursing services to patients (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010).The quality of nursing care provided is also low quality because a very small number of nurses are serving a very large population of patients. The workload is very big for the nurses that are in the organization and this becomes very difficult for the administrative department to ensure smooth delivery of services and quality care for patients. This shortage in staffing leads to negative feedback in the system because the results that come as a result of the shortage in nurses affect the smooth provision of health care (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010).
According to the open system theory, this problem exists in the administrative department because the healthcare centre depends on the supporting environment in sustaining its processes which are the input and these inputs through the recurring and patterned activities and interactions of individuals bring forth outputs (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010). For example, if there are no enough qualified nurses within the location of the healthcare centre, then it is difficult to get enough number of nurses from other areas because the search for nurses could be tasking. Therefore, generally if the numbers of qualified nurses are low, the health centre will have an inadequacy of nurses. This is because it is a social institution that is likely to be affected by whatever happens in the society (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010).
Addressing the problem
Through the use of the open system concepts, the problem can be addresses by seeking funding and resources from other institutions (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010). In this way, the inputs are used to improve the conditions in the healthcare centre by ensuring provision of adequate funds that will enable the healthcare organization to hire more nurses. Through this, the high numbers of patients can be handled by more nurses thus improving the quality of healthcare provided (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010). The desired outcome will be increasing the number of nurses which in turn leads to improved nursing care and improved working conditions since the workload is reduced. The goals and objectives that would facilitate the outcome include acquiring more donors so as to get more funds, increasing the number of nurses by at least five nurses per month, conducting community education on preventable diseases so as to reduce the occurrence of the diseases and thus being able to reduce the number of patients which is very high (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010).
These goals and objectives are then translated into policies and procedures for the department. The procedure that is going to be used in hiring nurses is advertising for nursing posts in the healthcare centre and conducting interviews so as to increase the number of nurses systematically. The policy to be put in place is engaging every family in community education and this could include door-to-door education. The relevant professional standards will be a degree in nursing (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010). The standards are high so as to ensure delivery of high quality services. The proposed resolution upholds the organization’s mission and vision in that it ensures provision of high quality and the availability of healthcare to patients. It improves the culture and climate by ensuring that both the workers and patients have a good work environment and all the issues that are given by the patients are taken care of. This ensures that the issue is resolved to satisfy both the nurses and the patients (Meyer, & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010).
Reference
Meyer, R. M., & O’Brien‐Pallas, L. L. (2010). Nursing services delivery theory: an open system approach. Journal of advanced nursing, 66(12), 2828-2838.
