Nursing Workload

What Is Workflow?

Workflow defined, is the set of responsibilities grouped chronologically into processes and the set of resources or people needed for those responsibilities, which are necessary to accomplish a given goal. An institution's workflow is comprised of the set of processes it requires to achieve, the set of people or other resources available to perform those processes, and the interactions between them.

In health care system, as in other businesses, some workflows are originated, while others arise naturally and evolve. The methods and systems by which institutions achieve specific goals vary dramatically. It is in the interaction between the processes that complexities occur. Some of these interactions hide struggles in the priorities of diverse roles in an institution, such as, what the nursing staff is responsible to versus the physician staff and its schedule. Institutions also adapt workflows to support the developing environment. Over time, reflecting on institutional workflows may show that some processes are no longer necessary, or can be optimized and updated.

Why workflow management necessary to Nurses?

Health care has frequently faced the pressure to design, or redesign, its workflows to be more effective and efficient. In many cases, the trigger for reviewing workflow is in response to alterations in how things are done. Certain day, the require to think about workflow design is numerous pressing due to many factors, containing:

1- The difficulty of coordinating care for the chronically ill.

2- The introduction of new technologies and treatment methodologies into clinical care.

3-Cost and competence pressures to improve patient flow.

4-The participation of a growing array of professionals in a patient’s care team, and new definitions of their roles

5-Implementation of reforms to make the care team more patient-focused.

6-Initiatives to ensure patient safety.

The design of good institutional workflow is not easily about developing efficiency. Workflow processes are maps that guide the health care staff how to achieve a goal. A great workflow will attain those objects promptly, driving to care that is delivered more reliably, safely, and consistently in compliance with standards of practice. A great workflow process can include differences that inevitably arise in health care through communication with another workflow processes, as well as environmental factors such as staff schedules, workload, and patient load.

Common Issue

Workflow problems usually appear in studies of technology. One great -studied domain field is bar code medication administration (BCMA).10 BCMA is a technology that has been proved to enhance care quality by increasing access to information, decreasing trust on memory, and improving compliance with best practice. 

More challenging interactions have also been observed. Due to many BCMA systems need that the doctor insert an order before the nurse can have access to the medicine, some nurses have, in critical conditions, “borrowed” medication from one patient on the ward to provide to another until the medicine for the second patient shows in the system. Consequently, the nurse cannot quickly document the administration of the order until the order has been inserted by the doctor. In some conditions, a shadow system of informal paper documentation supplements, duplicates, or confuses the documentation captured in an electronic system.

FOR ADDITION INFORMATION CLICK HERE

ALSO, PLEASE CLICK HERE   

AND, PLEASE PRESS HERE