Change Initiative: Implementation, Evaluation, and Sustanability

Change Initiative: Implementation, Evaluation
Latonya JonesLDR 615Dr. GriffenJanuary 22, 2020
The Need For Change
Learning and development coordinators in hospitals have always delivered training programs covering issues such as clinical competency and compliance. Although such training programs are important, many Western countries have experienced an influx of immigrants in the last few decades. In the United States, whites will become a minority by 2050, as expected. Vincent and Velkoff (1010) indicate that in states such as Texas, California, Arizona, and Florida, that tipping point will be achieved as early as 2025. In response to this increasing cultural diversity, the weekly communication training session at Woodley Healthcare Center will be replaced by Cultural Awareness Sessions that seek to enhance nurses' cultural competencies working in the emergency department. This change aims to help nurses evaluate their own cultural beliefs and reduce the risk of imposing unethical care on patients through ethnocentric assessment.
Driving Forces
The major external force that necessitates the adoption of Cultural Awareness Sessions is the increasing number of people of color in the United States. Since people of color face enduring and unique health challenges, nurses in the emergency department can only deliver quality care if they are aware of various cultural backgrounds. Internal forces include quality and cost concerns. In part, some of the unnecessary costs incurred by hospitals are driven by nurses' use of sophisticated medical technology when they cannot relate to the cultural beliefs of patients (Montenery et al., 2013). On the other hand, quality concerns increase the readmission rate, thus harming the hospital's standing in the community. Implementing the proposed change will positively affect nurses and patients. This change can relieve some of the fear and anxiety experienced by nurses when handling patients with different cultures. Equally, the successful implementation of the proposed change will improve communication between nurses and patients, thus reducing the latter's risk of not adhering to prescription.
Evaluation of Stakeholders
A change process's success is tied to the actors involved, including their awareness of the change, personal engagement, and ownership of the change process (Stouten and Cremer, 2018). In this case, the proposed change's success depends on three types of stakeholders: nurses, patients, and the learning and development coordinator. The cultural background of people is rooted in traditions that have been practiced for centuries. However, with globalization becoming a significant part of people's lives, certain aspects of culture have changed. As a result, nurses will have to spend at least 4 to 5 hours every week examining and agreeing on how to interact with various patients. In each session, the learning and development coordinator will provide discussion prompts, identify cultural areas that nurses should concentrate on, and present the change program's progress to the management. Lastly, patients, especially those of color, will be asked to fill assessment forms after interacting with nurses. The feedback on the assessment forms will be used to evaluate the cultural c...