Advocacy: Taking a Stand

Advocacy: Taking a Stand

Name of the Student

Name of the Institution

Introduction

The level of staffing affects productivity in all organizations. Good staffing is associated with higher productivity, while inadequate staffing has a negative impact on productivity. With regard to the healthcare organizations, good staffing is associated with improved patient care, whereas inadequate or poor staffing is leads to poor quality care of patients. Every healthcare giver has a moral or ethical duty to initiate or implement the required changes to solve any observed problem affecting the quality of care (Toren & Wagner, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to describe various aspects of my advocacy process meant to solve the problem of inadequate staffing in the labor and delivery department of our organization.

The problem and Outcomes of lack of Intervention

Our community healthcare organization is renowned for the quality healthcare services offered to patients for a long time. However, Mrs. Judy, one of the experienced nurses who have been working in the patient care in the labor and delivery department retired last week. Mrs. Kelly, another nurse who has been working in the same department took her off early this week. As a result, only to of us are currently working in the labor and delivery department. We are currently getting an overload of work, given that the number of patients served range between 7 and 12 every day.  The problem is compounded by the fact that the remaining colleague does not have adequate experience to work independently.

Failing to solve the problem will lead to our exhaustion due to overload. Exhaustion will lead to a delay in response to patients’ calls for assistance in the department. Unsafe deliveries are likely to occur due to the delay in response. Lack of adequate attendance is likely to lead to adverse effects on patients, such as injuries on babies and/or mothers, excess breeding of the mother or even death of the baby and/or the mother. Due to the overload, I may not be able to give adequate guidance to the inexperienced nurse. Without adequate guidance, the inexperienced nurse may give the wrong diagnosis or medication. In short, the problem will lead to poor quality services in the labor and delivery department (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012).

The Needed Advocacy Skills, Dispositions and Strategies

One of the most important skills needed in order to achieve the advocacy objective is communication skills. Good communication skills will help in conveying the issue to supervisors, leaders and managers in the organization. Specifically, speaking and writing skills will be very essential. Secondly, problem solving and decision-making skills will also be essential since they will help to come up with the most appropriate solution to the problem (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012). Ability to interact with other.............