Introduction
The field practicum course is of great importance as it enables one to put the theories learnt in class into practice. In the medical field, the practicum course is designed in a special way so that it enables learners to expand their understanding of the ways in which things are carried out in the hospital. For anyone who desires to have a practical knowledge and understanding of the organization and management of a hospital, it is very important to do the field practicum course. For this reason, I decided to do the course to obtain the on-site experience that is impartial in the medical field. The field practicum course offers brilliant learners with an opportunity to interact with medical professionals while on work. During the field practicum, learners are able to inquire about all that they are unable to understand in regard to the theoretical aspects (Hernandez et al. 2014).
It is the period during which learners enhance their skills and gain more confidence in their careers. The hands-on training experience enables learners to cover pertinent issues that lecturers cannot explain in class. It proves to be a revelation to most learners because they can test their knowledge and level of understanding during their practical exposure. Essentially, the practicum studies play a significant role in summarizing the prolonged theoretical studies. It enables learners to recall and reinforce the values and skills that were acquired during the entire study period (Liley 2002). Most importantly, the field practicum course offers learners with an opportunity to develop interpersonal relationships with professionals in their field of study. It is such an important course that I could not forgo.
Given the adequate time that was allocated for the field practicum course, I decided to select a study plan that would enable me to have adequate time to make a stringent analysis of the quality of services, the innovation measures and the performance and productivity levels of every department that I visited. The study plan obligated me to take at least a day or two to study every department. Thereafter, I could develop a summative report of the observations that I made, and I could come up with recommendations and suggestions for improvement.
Recommendations and suggestions
After assessing particular departments, I realized that some issues needed attention. While some departments faced insignificant issues, others were confronted with major issues that needed immediate action. The following recommendations address a range of issues in the various healthcare departments that I visited.
Pharmacy department
The errors that might occur in the pharmacy and supplies department are inevitable. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of the services offered in this department, it is important to develop a comprehensive personnel rotation plan. The employees in the pharmacy department and those in the supplies department should exchange roles at the end of every year. This approach will bring efficiency, transparency, exposure, and employee motivation. The employees working in this section will have the experience of working in either of the departments, and they can step in place of any employee who is absent from work at any particular moment.
Continuing Medication Education (CME) department
This is a very essential department in any hospital setup as it informs the staff about the current global practices. Therefore, this department is required to have top-notch expertise in searching for the latest medical practices. The department should review the leadership of the organization, and emphasize on leadership that enhances employee and customer satisfaction. The department should emphasize on the magnitude of change with regard to culture, structure, and strategy. Most importantly, the department should restructure its training modules to match with the current global medical practices.
Clinic and nutrition department
Besides the possession of social communication skills that are important for this department, the clinic and nutrition department ought to have highly skilled professionals. In line with the evolving world, global medical practices are changing drastically. Therefore, there is a need to invest in employee training programs that will enable the workers of the clinic and nutrition program to be at par with medical standards in the contemporary world. The training ought to follow a proactive subsystem that will match the objectives with the responsibilities of every employee. Moreover, the clinic and nutrition department should find ways of collecting data from various organizations in order to have the technological knowhow of how other organizations perform similar functions.
Health informatics department
This department deals with technology that is dynamic in the contemporary world. To improve the efficiency and the functionality of this department, it is necessary for the health informatics department to create a dynamic training session on a monthly basis. The trainings will offer the staffs with the opportunity to learn what the outside world is doing in terms of security management. Developing strong relations with companies like Cisco is very important because such companies will teach the staff about information security, management programs, and methods of minimizing human errors.
Clinic and nutrition department
Besides the possession of social communication skills that are important in this department, the clinic and nutrition department ought to have highly skilled professionals. In line with the evolving world, global medical practices are changing drastically. Therefore, there is a need to invest in employee training programs that will enable the workers of the clinic and nutrition program to be at par with health standards in the contemporary world. The training ought to follow a proactive subsystem that will match the objectives with the responsibilities of every employee. Moreover, the clinic and nutrition department should find ways of collecting data from various organizations in order to have the technological knowhow of how other organizations perform similar functions.
Human Resource (HR) Department
The HR department that ought to recruit employees should develop a strategy to listen to the suggestions put forth by junior employees. Indeed, some employees are talented, and if trained, they can serve at higher positions for the betterment of the hospital. The HR department should find ways to interact with HR professionals working in other hospitals in order to learn of the methods they employ when recruiting new employees. Most importantly, the department should develop clearly identified performance standards in order to effectively evaluate the performance of individual workers (Sharma 2013).
Hospital Information Management and Medical Records Department (IMMRD)
This department is responsible for keeping medical records, and it ought to adopt the mobile technological system. The department is still using the analogue system of keeping records in printed form. It is a high time that the department adopted the digital system of keeping records in soft copy, for the sake of convenience (Avancha, Baxi & Kotz 2012). It is important for the department to establish training sessions that will coach employees who do not know how to use the information technology systems.
Finance department
The finance department is the heart of any organization as it controls the finances that run the organization. Although the department is organized, there is a need to adopt a performance appraisal system that will encourage innovation and independent initiatives. The finance department should provide for a budget that will fund rewards to employees whenever they make exceptional performances. The department should also develop ways of working closely with the healthcare professionals so that they can help in making accurate projections. Most importantly, the department should use the system based cost variation method in allocating monies. This method will enable the department to make sound decisions in budgetary allocations.
Nursing department
The nursing role is all- encompassing and it is very important for the hospital to establish a new way of measuring the productivity of nurses. The approach of evaluating nurses’ productivity according to the number of patients and the hours they work per day is somewhat inefficient. If the existing system of evaluating nurses’ productivity continues, there should be a specific person in charge of monitoring the number of working hours and the workload. A cost-benefit analysis would be efficient to determine whether the nursing department is making maximum use of the available resources. Most importantly, physicians should be involved in giving informed opinions about measuring the productivity of the nurses. It is also important to compare the nursing role in Al Baraha Hospital with other hospitals, and employ the most effective measures of relieving the overwhelmed nurses from their tiring roles.
Prevention and control of infection unit
In a hospital setup, the entire population is predisposed to infections from the ailing patients. Therefore, special considerations are necessary when it comes to the prevention and control of the infection unit. The major suggestion for improvement for this unit is allowing the employees of the prevention and control department to take part in workshops and conferences that address the issues of controlling infections. Such workshops will be very efficient in enabling the staff to learn of the current innovations in their field. Moreover, cases of infection should be taken seriously, which is best done by giving opportunities to infected people to understand the entire processes through which they have got infected. The approach will be efficient in avoiding further infections (Minnaar 2008). Nurses and physicians who are familiar in the field should spare time to train other staff of the risk and methods of preventing infections. The entire exercise of preventing infections will be beneficial to the patients, physicians, nurses, and all staff working in the hospital.
Radiological and physiotherapy departments
A critical analysis of these departments indicated that there is some level of dissatisfaction amongst the workers. The nurses and physicians have a wealth of information regarding the ways of improving these departments. It is a high time that the management team offered the physicians and nurses working in these departments a chance to air their views. Indeed, the staffs who come up with feasible suggestions should receive rewards for their innovative ideas (Harris et al. 2014). It is worth noting that the radiological department uses imaging technologies that tend to change over time. It would be very cost-efficient if the workers of the department are made to undergo trainings at different times to acquire the new knowledge about imaging technologies. It was noted that the gym and the therapy rooms are considerably small and crowded. Therefore, it would be efficient to expand them so that patients can receive valuable physiotherapy treatments. Moreover, the physiotherapy department is understaffed, and it would be necessary for the human resource department to recruit qualified physiotherapists to relieve the current employees from their overwhelming role of serving excessive numbers of patients at any given time. Most importantly, an orientation program for the new workers is necessary, as it would facilitate the turnover rates.
Impacts and implications
It becomes quite apparent that there is a strong need for people recommending changes in any department or functions to have the ability of identifying the impacts or benefits of their respective recommendations. After assessing the working of different departments it emerges that the impacts on them must be outlined in detail so that necessary action can be initiated to improve their performance.
Pharmacy department
It is quite normal for errors and mistakes to occur in the pharmacy department, which can have far reaching consequences for the patients, in addition to harming the credibility of the hospital in the long term. Efficiency of the department will be improved by introducing the system of job rotation, which will ensure that majority of the employees from different departments will get the opportunity to understand the composition of different medicines. A program can be effectively initiated through which employees in the pharmacy department and those in the supplies department can be interchanged at regular intervals in order to bring greater efficiency. Moreover, the employees will then be able to have greater exposure and experience in achieving better outcomes for the hospital because they will have the ability to work in different departments.
Continuing Medication Education (CME) department
If the CME department undertakes the recommended approaches, the entire hospital staff will learn the latest and most efficient ways of handling fellow employees and customers. With an increase in the level of employee satisfaction, there is no doubt that employees will serve customers more efficiently and thus increase the output considerably (Ogrinc & Headrick 2008). The comprehensive personnel rotation program in the pharmacy and supplies department will play a major role in bringing transparency, accountability, and responsibility of employee actions. The employees who have ill motives will be obligated to act responsibly as they will be in the know that they can be easily replaced by other employees in the event of their dismissal from service. The suggestion of preventing and controlling infection is a very efficient measure, which advocates that the entire hospital fraternity should focus on prevention rather than cure (Wilson 2006). The recommendation encourages the physicians and the nurses to put aside their pride and purpose on working together to prevent and control infections in the hospital (Hughes 2007).
Clinic and nutrition department
It becomes apparent that the department is in need to be aggressive and at par with the evolving world. This recommendation will enable the employees to acquire new skills, develop a bond with professionals from other organizations and develop the inclination of working hard to deliver the best results (Soumendu 2011). As per the discussions, the human resource department ought to be courteous enough to listen to junior employees. This motivational procedure will inspire the employees to work hard and to have their contributions recognized (El-Jardali et al. 2007). It is known that the nursing department is overwhelmed with the nursing role. The approach of trying to find feasible solutions in relieving nurses from the overwhelming role will prove to be a big relief for them. The nurses will have an opportunity to work like nurses in other hospitals, and they will deliver their best. Moreover, the approach of recruiting physiotherapists would be very helpful in enhancing the quality of services offered in the physiotherapy department. The two approaches will ensure that the employees from these two departments are satisfied with their jobs. They will feel appreciated, and they will tend to work harder and produce better results than before (Hickson 2013).
Health informatics department
The recommendation that the department ought to be at par with the evolving technological world is very important (Angst et al. 2011). These motivational suggestions aim at improving the efficacy and efficiency of healthcare services at the hospital. Learning to manage data errors and handle security threats is a great achievement for the health informatics department, as it will be much easy to manage the entire patients’ data. Similarly, the medical records department is obligated to adopt information technology systems in keeping hospital records. These procedures will facilitate the hospital operations. Indeed, the access and retrieval of patients’ data will be very easy, and the patients will not have to wait for prolonged periods for the completion of the registration process. Another department that ought to learn about the latest technology is the radiology department. Indeed, the entire process would enhance functionality and productivity of all the employees (Abujudeh 2012).
Human Resource (HR) Department
The recommendations in regard to the HR Department are in keeping with the evolving HR practices across the world because human resources are the most important resources of the organization (Angst et al. 2011). Implications for this department primarily pertain to introducing measures relating to motivational programs with the prime objective of improving overall efficacy amongst all employees. Given that a certain percentage of employees possess extraordinary talent, it is imperative for such employees to be made more competent through training programs so that they become capable of assuming higher positions with greater responsibility. Finding innovative ways of interacting with HR experts in other organizations will help the HR department in adopting the latest HR interventions in regard to recruitment, promotions and training. It is very important for the department to adopt high performance standards while assessing the performance of employees.
Hospital Information Management and Medical Records Department (IMMRD)
Given that the department continues to use the defunct analogue system that is no longer considered to be efficient in the face of new expectations emerging from advancements in IT technology, it is recommended that the hospital should take initiatives to adopt the mobile technological system that is more efficient for keeping medical records. The analogue system requires the use of printed forms in which patient information is entered and is then required to be filled in data banks. Instead, the mobile technology system will entail direct entry of data that will save physical work required to be done by employees. This new digital system will be more convenient and efficient but the system can be effectively adopted only through appropriate training so that employees become well versed in using the new system (Avancha, Baxi & Kotz 2012).
Finance department
The recommendations indicate that the finance department ought to use the system based cost variation method in managing the hospital finances. Indeed, this method would enable the department to manage finances in an efficient manner. The department will be able to employ strategic measures to reduce unnecessary hospital costs and improve the general performance of the hospital staff. The entire exercise will enhance transparency and the finance professionals will handle hospital funds with more responsibility (Dunham 2006). Moreover, the motivational incentives will play a great role in enhancing employees’ performance. Although employees may not obtain financial incentives at all times, the incentives will play a major role in enhancing their performance.
Nursing department
If the hospital adopts the recommended approaches in regard to the role of nurses, the productivity of nurses can be effectively measured and more effective initiatives can be taken to provide better services in the hospital. Better nursing services will entail greater patient satisfaction, thus improving the hospital’s credibility (Ogrinc & Headrick 2008). It is very important to find an effective means to assess nurses’ performance and the suggested practices would make it more practicable to monitor the working hours of nurses and the workload they have. The outcomes of the cost-benefit analysis will allow the hospital to ascertain if the right resources are being used by the nursing department, which will further facilitate the efficient allocation of resources. In addition, the recommended approaches would allow the hospital administration to find ways of reallocating duties to nurses in such ways that the workload on them is reduced significantly, thus resulting in greater job satisfaction.
Prevention and control of infection unit
Given the immense risk associated with the hospital environment in the context of the patients being exposed to infections on a constant basis, it is important for the hospital administration to adopt the given recommendations in this regard. If employees in the prevention and control department are made to undergo the requisite training, they will be able to make greater contribution in mitigating the risks associated with infection of patients. Staff in the department will then be able to use the best practices emerging from technological innovations in this field. Infected people will be taken more seriously and given more specific treatment directed at removing the diagnosed infection. This will lead to overall efficiency in the department (Minnaar 2008). All efforts to prevent infections will benefit patients, hospital staff, physicians and nurses.
Radiological and physiotherapy departments
It is known that employees in this department are not fully satisfied. It is known that there are many doctors and nurses that are very well experienced in the working of this department. If recommendations in this regard are followed by the hospital, the department can be improved tremendously (Harris et al. 2014). It is known that technology advancements in radiology and imaging are taking place at a very past pace and if technicians working in the department are trained in acquiring the new expertise they will prove to be a boon for the hospital. In the context of physiotherapy, increasing the size of the gym and therapy rooms will add to the hospital’s capacity to treat patients, leading to better physiotherapy treatment. If the HR department goes ahead in complying with the recommendation of hiring more physiotherapists, the workload on present staff will reduce in allowing them to offer better services.
Conclusions
From the discussions, it is evident that most recommendations insist on trainings and motivational programs. Indeed, the trainings will play a great role in enhancing the productivity of the employees. Moreover, the motivational procedures are just amazing in terms of the ways in which they can influence productivity. Employees who feel that their hard work is unappreciated will always have a reason to smile once someone takes the initiative of recognizing their hard work. They will work harder than before to prove that they are competent, and that they deserve a promotion. Their efforts will benefit the hospital and the patients that are in desperate need of healthcare services. Indeed, technology in the contemporary world is evolving at a very fast rate, and people ought to be dynamic to adopt the latest technology. Adopting the latest technology in all computerized sectors in the hospital would enhance functionality and productivity of all the employees. Most importantly, the spirit of togetherness that arises from the given recommendations is very encouraging as staffs in the hospital will demonstrate mutual cooperation. People will work in harmony, and they will act responsively to the advantage of the patients who visit the hospital. If the executives of Al Baraha Hospital consider implementing the mentioned recommendations, the healthcare facility will offer the best healthcare services. The overall functionality and operations in the hospital will improve considerably. The number of patients will increase drastically and people will testify of the efficient healthcare services offered in the hospital. The employees will be satisfied, they will deliver their best and they will not desire to retire from the hospital.
Reflections on the Field practicum experience
The field practicum experience has proved to be of great help in my studies in health management. I can attest that I had a lifetime experience from the learning that I obtained from the medical professionals that I was able to draw on. Firstly, I learnt that patients have paramount trust on the healthcare professionals, and the worst thing that the professionals can do is to disapprove their trust. I learnt that healthcare administration and management is a very challenging task. The responsibility of managing an entire healthcare facility requires sacrifice of the highest order. The field practicum experience revealed to me that hospital administrators are leaders who are ready to put their pride aside and serve needy people. The theory learnt in class is just an outlay reflection of the real life experience at the healthcare setup. The entire staff and patients look up to the managers and they expect the best from them. The managers and administrators are answerable for everything that happens in the hospital. They have to be people who can multitask and ensure that everything is running smoothly in all the departments in the hospital (Ellis & Abbott 2014).
They have to be influential people who can make people change their minds when situations are too difficult to handle. With the limited resources that are available, the managers have to develop ways to ensure that there is efficient and impartial allocation of the available resources. The managers have to develop efficient ways of ensuring employee and patient satisfaction. Indeed, healthcare administration and management is one of the most challenging roles, and those who intend to serve in such positions should be ready to overcome the countless personal and professional challenges they will encounter in their career. I can say with confidence that the classes and the Field practicum have allowed me to be adequately prepared for the job at hand. I have realized that it is of utmost importance to create trust amongst patients, which requires a great deal of sacrifice in demonstrating leadership abilities to serve needy people.
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