Change in a practicum environment
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Change in a practicum environment
Change is a vital concept when a healthcare facility considers policy implementation to improve health outcomes. In my practicum environment, cultural awareness for mental health is still a growing concern, and necessary measures are essential to control the long-term outlook of the issue. Concerns within a healthcare environment that hider change can be named barriers to change, and they include; regulatory environment and the supporting infrastructure (White et al., 2019).
Change in a practicum environment
The regulatory environment stands out as a hindrance to change as proposed change strategies have to undergo approvals before being considered for implementation. The lack of direct influence to the higher authorities might hinder a nurse leader from achieving their targeted milestones on cultural awareness in mental health (Darling, 2016). Therefore, the nurse leader must be able to approach, convince, and justify the importance of their proposed new practice approaches so that they can be approved for implementation. Another considerable barrier to change is the supporting infrastructure. The existing resources in a healthcare facility might hinder the successful implementation of new practice approaches, mainly if they are limited in nature. Insufficient funds, poor communication channels, lack of reliable health records management systems, and poor leadership skills constitute a poor supporting infrastructure (Graf, 2020). Establishing a solid infrastructure is a guaranteed step towards establishing change in a healthcare environment and subsequently achieving cultural awareness on mental health.
With the need for change in my healthcare environment, I need to identify a change theory to guide my change efforts. My change theory of choice is the change theory by Kurt Lewin. I was drawn to this change theory owing to its simplicity and practicality. The theory highlights three significant concepts in the journey to change implementation. These concepts include; driving forces, restraining forces and equilibrium. The driving forces are the factors tact facilitate change occurrence, while the restraining forces are the barriers to change as they hinder the implementation of the change process. The equilibrium represents where the barriers are equal to the driving forces, hence a state where no change occurs (Wellings et al., 2017).
Regarding the concepts highlighted in this model and my practicum in consideration, it would be vital to ensure the driving forces outweigh the barriers. This would be easily achieved by minimizing the purported barriers and increasing the driving forces. Driving forces, in this case, may include; a strong nursing leader to enforce the changes, an existing infrastructure with all the needed resources and also cooperation with regulatory bodies to ensure the aspect of cultural awareness on mental health is approved for easy implementation (Foster et al., 2019).
As a nurse leader, it is my key responsibility to address the barriers to change appropriately. Developing effective strategies to curb these barriers is, therefore, vital. On the aspect of regulatory hindrances, I would take on my new practice approaches and be vocal on them to the responsible authorities. I would present evidence-based research and factual statistics to convince them of the practicality and applicability of my new practice approaches to cultural awareness in mental health. I would approach and encourage interested donors to facilitate adequate funding through donations on the aspect of funding. This would be crucial as it will fund our operations, such as public awareness programs, media outreach, and funds required to push these practice approaches into laws.
Change in a practicum environment
References
White, K. M., Dudley-Brown, S., & Terhaar, M. F. (Eds.). (2019). Translation of evidence into nursing and healthcare. Springer Publishing Company.
Darling, F. (2016). Practitioners’ views and barriers to implementation of the Keeping Birth Normal tool: A pilot study. British Journal of Midwifery, 24(7), 508-519.
Graf, A. C., Jacob, E., Twigg, D., & Nattabi, B. (2020). Contemporary nursing graduates’ transition to practice: A critical review of transition models. Journal of clinical nursing, 29(15-16), 3097-3107.
Wellings, C. A., Gendek, M. A., & Gallagher, S. E. (2017). Evaluating continuing nursing education: a qualitative study of intention to change practice and perceived barriers to knowledge translation. Journal for nurses in professional development, 33(6), 281-286.
Foster, K., Roche, M., Delgado, C., Cuzzillo, C., Giandinoto, J. A.