Before we can deal with what’s happening ‘in the now’ we need know where we are heading and what we are trying to achieve.
I’m a ‘top-down outside-in man’. I need to see the big picture so that I can plan my road map.
Yet, from my experience as a hospital manager, this is the exact opposite to what healthcare professionals are used to. In their training and day-to-day activities they are accustomed to spending all their time ‘in the moment’, dealing with the patient in front of them and his or her needs.
The trouble that hospitals have is that without a road map view of what’s going to occur, the ‘in the moment’ bit becomes chaotic. No-one can see the forest for the trees.
The working life for healthcare professionals and management in hospitals is as close to reactive chaos as you can get: one minute we’re in crisis mode, the next minute we can breathe again. This is the reality of the state of our healthcare organisations, and it is this never-ending syndrome of feast and famine.
I’ve always maintained that there has to be a better way; one that doesn’t compromise the 100% in-the-moment attention when delivering patient care. The answer is to have visibility of what’s going to happen in advance, so that everyone knows when the feasts and famines are going to occur.
Nurse Managers can prepare for these periods and reduce the chaos by planning a roadmap with the help of management. With increasing demand and tightening budgets, it’s vital to plan ahead, for otherwise the chaos will only worsen. If we’re to continue to deliver 100% ‘in the moment’, we need to plan ahead accordingly.
Nick Burns Sales & Marketing Director, Emendo