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Navigating Healthcare Staff Challenges

Vickie Lemmon was the new administrator of the California Children Services program and encountered a team in crisis. Staff expressed frustration with staffing, workload, team communication and this was shown through high turnover, lack of teamwork, customer complaints, and poor documentation. Her challenge was to lead this team to greater compliance with state performance measures. The direct care nurse's role focuses on completing physical tasks efficiently according to policies. However, this task-oriented role can leave nurses feeling frustrated as they are educated to provide holistic care, and only giving a fragment of care may result in unmet expectations and lead to staff dissatisfaction and high turnover.

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98 views1 page

Navigating Healthcare Staff Challenges

Vickie Lemmon was the new administrator of the California Children Services program and encountered a team in crisis. Staff expressed frustration with staffing, workload, team communication and this was shown through high turnover, lack of teamwork, customer complaints, and poor documentation. Her challenge was to lead this team to greater compliance with state performance measures. The direct care nurse's role focuses on completing physical tasks efficiently according to policies. However, this task-oriented role can leave nurses feeling frustrated as they are educated to provide holistic care, and only giving a fragment of care may result in unmet expectations and lead to staff dissatisfaction and high turnover.

Uploaded by

isapatrick8126
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The Challenge

Vickie Lemmon, RN, MSN

Director of Clinical Strategies, Operations WellPoint Inc. Ventura, California

Healthcare managers today are faced with numerous and complex issues that pertain to
providing quality services for patients within a resource-scarce environment. Stress levels
among staff can escalate when problems are not resolved, leading to a decrease in morale,
productivity, and quality service. This was the situation I encountered in my previous job
as administrator for California Children Services (CCS). When I began my tenure as the
new CCS administrator, staff expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with staffing,
workload, and team communications. This was evidenced by high staff turnover, lack of
teamwork, customer complaints, unmet deadlines for referral and enrollment cycle times,
and poor documentation. The team was in crisis, characterized by infighting, blaming, lack
of respectful communication, and lack of commitment to program goals and objectives. I
had not worked as a case manager in this program. It was hard for me to determine how to
address the problems the staff presented to me. I wanted to be fair but thought that I did not
have enough information to make immediate changes. My challenge was to lead this team
to greater compliance with state-mandated performance measures.

p. 235

Direct Care Nurse s Role

The direct care RN becomes skilled at the tasks that are usually assigned by the charge
nurse. Clearly defined policies and procedures are used to complete the physical aspects of
care in an efficient and economical manner. However, the functional model of nursing may
leave the professional nurse feeling frustrated because of the task-oriented role. Nurses are
educated to care for the patient holistically, and providing only a fragment of care to a
patient may result in unmet personal and professional expectations of nurses. As a result,
this approach often leads to staff dissatisfaction and, ultimately, unacceptable staff
turnover.

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