Introduction
Human resource management is present in a multitude of industries and spheres.
Since modern organizations become more and more people-centered, the importance of HR management has increased.
HR management has many functions and is the source of solutions for an organization such as Kendall Regional Medical Center.
This paper will explore the current staffing situation in the aforementioned organization and discuss its issues and solutions.
What Human Resource Management Is
Human Resource Management (HRM) includes all the practices and policies that may be in place for the organizations to handle the aspects of management related to the employees (or human resources). It involves recruitment, hiring, staffing, assessment, mentoring, coaching, rewarding, distribution of benefits, employee termination, and motivation (Niles, 2013).
The primary role of the HRM in healthcare organizations is the provision of coordination and partnership between the employees and the managers (this function remains unchanged regardless of the type of organization) (Niles, 2013).
Healthcare organizations are characterized by the dual structure of administration (health services management and clinical management) that has two different groups of workers with very different functions and education levels (Niles, 2013).
The steps for an organization to take in order to facilitate the relationship between the employees and the managers are the following:
- Making HR professionals the consultants as to the employees matters.
- Encourage active communication between management and the HR department.
- Assess the state of an organization on a regular basis.
- Make sure that HR conducts coaching and training of the workers (Niles, 2013).
- Nurse Retention Rates.
- At Kendall Regional Medical Center, the retention practices require better attention.
- The Regional Medical Center currently experiences high rates of employee turnover.
To be more precise, there is a noticeable tendency for the Center to lose its leading personnel, which leads to the loss of valuable professionals with high level of knowledge and experience
The loss of valuable human resources results in the loss of the quality of services and the higher rates of dissatisfaction among the remaining staff members due to the heavier and uneven workloads.
According to Hayes et al. (2012), turnover is a psychological reaction of employees to a negative performance of the organization’s management.
The determinants of turnover intention are various: role perception, stress and excessive workloads, management style, empowerment level, and individual factors (Hayes et al., 2012).
That way, in order to ensure the retention of the employees, an organization is to detect the root causes of the negative impacts and address them.
Resignations and Workloads Allocation
Recently, Kendall Regional Medical Center has experienced an increased rate of turnover.
To be more precise, within a one-year period, the organization has lost the following people:
- the director of ICU resigned,
- the director of the emergency department resigned
- the director of surgical services resigned, and recently, the director of the intermediate care unit resigned.
Logically, the series of resignations led to the unfair allocation of workloads for the remaining personnel.
To cover all those positions, some of the other directors in other services cover as the missing directors, for example:
- the CVL director covers the surgical service,
- the don assistant covers ED,
- the telemetry unit director covers the ICU, and the MED-SURG director covers the IMC unit
In addition to the resignations of the directors, cuts were made to the staff of nurses.
Namely, the administration decided to cut the nurse assistants in all the services as follows:
- In MED-SURG, the nurse assistants are cut to 8 in 7a-7p and 8 in 7p to 7a.
In ICU, cut all the nurse assistants. So the nurses need to do all the care and help one another to do the total care (picking up all the garbage, feeding, and doing all the patient care). As a result, the workloads are allocated the following way: 2 patients for each nurse with occasional days where the staffing is especially insufficient (in those days, one nurse would care for 3 patients at the same time).
In IMC, the administration decided to cut all the nurse assistants as well; that is why, just like in the ICU, the nurses there are doing all the patient care, including total care in patients with tracheostomy in ventilators, burn patients, and also trauma patients.
Besides, over the last year, many nurses decided to resign:
- In ICU 20 nurses,
- In IMC – 19,
- In ER – 24;
- In MED-SURG – 17;
- And in Surgical services – 13.
Educational Levels of Nurses
Currently, the staff of nurses at Kendall Regional Medical Centre includes 30 employees.
All of the employees are qualified registered nurses.
All of the nurses have BSN level
According to the review of Khaliq, Zia-ur-Rehman, and Rashid (2011), regardless of the level of education of nurses and their professional preparedness, understaffing is likely to lead to such negative outcomes as the turnover intention, low employees satisfaction, the decrease in service quality; also, in most cases, the unfair workloads due to understaffing are perceived directly as a failure of the management.
Chart of Findings as to the Educational Levels of Nurses
Plans to Recruit Specialty Nurses
The organization’s staffing plans is to select the new human resources with the help of an agency.
The organization is in need of the new nurses and nurse assistants so that the nurses were able to delegate some of their duties.
Currently, the nurses are overloaded with the varieties of duties and tasks that impact their professional performance in a negative way.
Also, the directors are to be hired as well. Often, the organizations prefer to select the leaders internally by means of promoting the existing employees (Elarabi & Johari, 2014).
Why Proactive Action Is Important
In the case of Kendall Regional Medical Center, proactive measures are the only successful way out of the situation where the organization is understaffed and continues to lose valuable human resources some of whom are leaders.
The situation currently includes a multitude of factors that are recognized by many researchers as the primary contributors to the increase in turnover rates (excessive workloads, unfair allocation of duties, high levels of stress, situations that require constant attention and control, lack of appreciation, opportunities, and support) (Laschinger, Wong, Cummings, & Grau, 2014; Hayes et al., 2012).
As a result, passive approach is likely to increase the turnover and worsen the employee dissatisfaction.
Recommended Interventions
The solution to the situation currently faced by Kendal Regional Medical Center is to hire the employees using the help of an agency and further provide training in order to prepare the new staff to perform successfully within the organization.
Trepanier, Early, Ulrich, and Cherry (2012) emphasize that the new graduate RNs are in need of sufficient training to obtain clinical experience through the guidance of an experienced coach.
That is why, selecting and hiring new staff is only the first part of an intervention, whereas its other part is the provision of necessary education and mentoring to the new staff.
Conclusion
Since Kendall Regional Medical Center is facing a growing rate of turnover among nurses, nurse assistants, and directors, the organization requires an intervention that would solve its staffing issues.
Proactive approach is the key in this situation as the organization has started to experience difficulties since the remaining staff is overloaded and dissatisfied due to the scarcity of human resources.
Hiring new employees is only a part of the solution, coaching is required to prepare the new practitioners to perform as a part of the team.
References
Elarabi, H. M., & Johari, F. (2014). The impact of human resources management on healthcare quality. Asian Journal of Management Sciences & Education, 3(1), 13- 22. ISSN: 2186-845X.
Hayes, L., O’Brien-Pallas, L., Duffield, C., Shamian, J., Buchan, J., & Hughes, F.,… North, N. (2012). Nurse turnover: A literature review – An update. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49(7), 887-905.
Khaliq, J., Zia-ur-Rehman, M., & Rashid, M. (2011). The role of human resource management and nurses’ job satisfaction in medical service organizations. African Journal of Business Management 5(3), 974-986. doi: 10.5897/AJBM10.877
Laschinger, H., Wong, C. A., Cummings, G. G., & Grau, A. (2014). Resonant Leadership and Workplace Empowerment: The Value of Positive Organizational Cultures in Reducing Workplace Incivility. Nursing Economics, 32(1), 5-44.
Niles, N. J. (2013). Basic concepts of heath care human resource management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Trepanier, S., Early, S., Ulrich, B., & Cherry, B. (2012). New Graduate Nurse Residency Program: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Based On Turnover and Contract Labor Usage. Nursing Economics 30(4), 207-214.