Summary
Educational programs are important in organizations that involve a high number of employees, such as hospitals, schools, and other similar environments. Offering health education programs assists the personnel to have a controlled lifestyle with underlying conditions due to some chronic medical terms that need to be addressed for the sake of productivity. Stress management is vital as it determines the productivity of healthcare workers and also patient satisfaction. This paper aims to develop a new online stress management program for educating doctors and nurses who work as critical care providers in busy hospitals.
The reason why the work dwells on educating the said hospital personnel is due to the level of poor performances, patient-to-doctor conflicts, and depression that have been evident in healthcare organizations. Specifically, departments that provide critical care, such as the intensive care unit (ICU), HDU, theater section, and others, have been associated with complex work situations that give the workers a hard time managing their psychological affairs. For instance, those working to reinstate a patient in their conscious state may have pressure to succeed under sensitive workloads that may be subject to stress.
This program intends to offer education to the targeted group through online means. Therefore, by the time the process is implemented, there is a need to look for online tools that can be effective in delivering this content. This work recommends the creation of websites that shall have this content. Additionally, the learning shall be offered through online audiovisual channels powered by social media to enhance the key objective. There is a need to market the program because it intends to help many healthcare professionals. Marketing will be done by escalating the program schedules through official memos and arranging to have special coverage to teach the targeted professionals to reduce stress levels.
This program desires to improve the work environment in hospitals and ensure the reduction of stress while at work or after the job. Furthermore, the program’s objectives shall also be to support medical professionals in fulfilling their goals through calculative intervention measures for combatting stress. Though the program shall be online-based, the students or learners in this matter will be required to monitor their stress levels through the necessary and respective reporting points in their department.
Research and Identification of the Program
As the introduction section suggests, the educational program, in this case, will be stress management in hospitals that shall be utilized by doctors in critical care departments. The program is necessary for the healthcare market due to the likelihood of adoption by the target group, doctors and nurses working in critical care departments in busy hospitals (Barbour et al., 2016). Various points provide evidence for the need to have a new program to reduce stress levels in hospitals, as discussed.
To present evidence about the stress levels in hospitals more so, for doctors and nurses working in critical care departments, there is a need to check various factions. First, the prevalence of stress and depression issues among nurses who work in sensitive departments (Barbour et al., 2016). Secondly, the risk factors that subject the target groups to yielding to stress during work. Lastly, stress management programs that have been developed to combat the issue in other fields have been effective so far, and thus, there is a need to innovate new programs based on specific working paraphernalia.
According to the high prevalence of stress issues in hospitals, nurses and doctors are also affected. A random study conducted on 800 critical care professionals in the US, the study found that more than 65% of them have anxiety, 34% have nightmares, 44% have irritability disorders and 35% have insomnia issues (Bea & Eun, 2019). Thus, from the statistics, it is clear that the level of stress in hospitals’ critical care departments is high and there is a need to offer an educational program that will teach the group how to fight the psychological challenge. Furthermore, according to other studies conducted, the overall prevalence of stress for ICU professionals was 52.34% for nurses and 36.5% for doctors (Bea & Eun, 2019). The extent of stress depends on the group because about 14% of doctors yielding to stress issues were affected severely (Bea & Eun, 2019). Therefore, the prevalence provides evidence of stress issues in critical care departments. Hence, the program will have a high likelihood of being adopted in the healthcare market.
The evidence for the requirement to adopt the program is supported by the risk factors that make the target groups victims of stress. The work environment is the key factor here since most of the staff in the critical care departments are subjected to traumatic incidents that patients go through during their care (Chuang et al., 2016). For instance, when an individual is brought to get treatment following a tragic accident, the nurses may be sensitive to the level of bodily destruction while undertaking the duties. Workload still contributes, as these professionals are supposed to leave work after handing it over to other groups when the job is significantly done (Chuang et al., 2016). That means the nurses and doctors may struggle with non-linear schedules due to the alternation of working shifts, among other factors.
Other programs that help in healing stress have been effective. Therefore, with the observation, educating nurses and doctors to maintain stress will be feasible. From the research, it is clear that when other people use stress management programs, they will have the advantage of undertaking their duties well (Dewanto, 2018). The feature is possible about offering the program online since many nurses and doctors are competent with telehealth that is used on such grounds. Additionally, the world is at the level of technology courtesy of a globalized society and hence, the education program will be offered online successfully.
Competitive Space
Health education on managing stress has been offered for a long while. However, the previous programs offered were centered on a general nursing perspective but not a specific specialization. This program will face low competition because it touches on managing stress for critical care providers (Frögéli et al., 2019). Therefore, for healthcare organizations, more so, hospitals, the leadership shall utilize the information to encourage their employees on how to combat the issues at their places of work.
Some of the online programs in regard to this healthcare education perspective include ‘The stress Detox’ by Udemy, ‘Managing stress’ by RedSeed, and ‘Science of stress’ by edX (Frögéli et al., 2019). The available online programs have focused their information about the issue on general perspectives and thus, this program will thrive in the market since it focuses on a specific group. The other competitive advantage of this program is that it shall have a website, social media accounts, and also an office for consultation. The level of marketing expected to be conducted, as depicted in the introductory section, shall make it a unique and outgoing program in the market.
The Market for the Program
The program will rely on demographical data so that it may sell effectively in the market. Online education shall target more male than female nurses and doctors working in critical care departments in major hospitals across the US. The reason why gender is among the personnel targeted is that 60% of male nurses and doctors have been affected by stress compared to 40% of their female counterparts (Kumar et al., 2016). The age education program shall be welcome to all groups but with a special focus on 35-39 years old professionals who have taken 35% of the affected number (Kumar et al., 2016). Those aged 30-34 years are also among the key targets as a significant figure of the nurses and doctors lying under that age gap are adversely affected by the issue.
The education program shall offer ways of dealing with stress for nurses and doctors who have undergraduate degrees. The group has 35% of the total number affected (Hersch et al., 2016). The associates will be a secondary consideration since they take 23% of the total number of professionals affected (Hersch et al., 2016). The profession that the program intends to focus as mentioned in the previous section includes nurses and doctors working in critical care departments, such as ICU.
The characteristics of the target group that the online program shall address varies. The initiative will benefit the professionals who say that stress is evident due to emergency roles in the course of work and also collisions with the management. Additionally, the nurses who have confessed to getting at risk of accidents while working shall be helped (Kini et al., 2016). The reason why the above features will define the marketing aspects of the program is due to the levels of engagement that they are indulged in. Therefore, to have an effective marketing strategy, the above group must be considered.
The Value Propositions
If the target groups mentioned in this paper adopt and embrace the program, then it is an assurance of stress-free working zones. Moreover, there is a guarantee for effective patient satisfaction and improved productivity in the critical care departments (Kunttu et al., 2020). Therefore, the nurses and doctors will be the prospectus for the recommended online program regarding a health issue. A stress-free lifestyle will be enabled by getting effective strategies for combatting psychological issues, such as having breaks in between working hours, alternated shifts, and incentive-oriented working zones, among others.
When critical care professionals are given ways in which they can avoid stress, it makes them avoid individual or group liabilities hence, satisfying patient care. Under the ways that the paper shall propose in the coming sections, hospitals in the US shall be able to maximize the program. It will also lead to obtaining of important information on how they can guide their respective staff in handling stress (Seaman et al., 2018). The value proposition shall be felt after a short duration of monitoring the progress and performance of the target group. It is important to embrace the program since it marks an epitome of a long journey in combatting stress that is associated with working conditions at the critical care departments. If the education program succeeds, it will benefit not only the hospitals in the US but also other regions in the world.
References
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