Leadership and service improvement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

Leadership and service improvement - Essay Example It barely comes as a shock that the working conditions in most nursing systems are wanting. My work area is no different. I work as a National Health Service nurse in a Short Stay Ward. We keep patients at the ward for a maximum of seventy two hours before we discharge them or transfer them elsewhere if need be. Of late we have adopted a QCC drive to carry out the function of patient observations for the first twenty four hours of their admission at intervals of four hours each. Thereafter the nurses are required to apply their professional intellect and decide how often the patients need observation. My unit of fellow nurses and I decided that eight-hour-intervals would be quite appropriate for patient observations for the next forty eight hours of their admission. All our patient observations go into the database to enable the Trust note when we complete them on time and when we fail to as well. Failure of which, a fine is charged on all the nurses by the QCC. The system perceives itself to be foolproof and top-notch, needless to mention. The reality is quite the contrar y. Despite our commitment to the working of this system, it has proven to be problematic. Here is why. After a much-needed debate for a reasonable amount of time, my unit and I decided that our first patient observations during the initial twenty four hours which are to be done at eight-hour intervals would be at 6:00 hours and 14:00 hours respectively. As for the latter patient observations at four-hour intervals, we agreed upon 6:00 hours, 10:00 hours, 14:00 hours, 18:00 hours, 22:00 hours and 2:00 hours in that order. The rest of the hours are appropriate but for 6:00 hours, which is undoubtedly a challenge. First off, the patients do need their rest. Waking them up at 6:00 hours in the morning for their routine observations certainly does not help this aspect of their recovery. It is deemed problematic and causes a disturbance to the patients a lot more than it helps. As if