SANCHEZ, Julienne Rowelie A.

HEAD NURSING (August 25 & 27, 2013) MSU Unit (AMMC) Adventist Medical Center of Manila SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

August 29, 2013

This was my first week to be a student head nurse in Adventist Medical Center of Manila. Being a student head nurse is a position with great responsibilities being the leader of a group. Leadership, as defined by Yukl, is a process of influence in which the leader influences others toward goal achievement (Kelly, 2012). Management, on the other hand was defined as the process of coordinating actions and allocating resources to achieve organizational goals (Kelly, 2012).What these two definitions basically have in common was both of them being a process. To be an effective leader and manager, one should undergo a continuous process which could lead to achievement of goals. Being a student head nurse, I experienced being involved in some of the stages in this process. Due to insufficient hours of experience (2 shifts only because of the holiday), not so much situations in my experience are well-suited enough to be analyzed, so I took a sample situation in one of the critical thinking questions in our module. SITUATION: A patients daughter comes to the nurses station and asks to speak to the nurse in charge. She is upset and angry because her mother is very upset and angry because her mother is very upset about her new diagnosis of cancer, yet the family of the patient sharing the room is boisterous and laughing. How should a nurse handle this situation?

ANALYSIS: As the Leader and Manager, I will utilize the 5 Steps in the Decision-Making process presented in the Nursing Leadership and Management handouts by Maam Polancos. These are the following: Step 1: Identify the need for a decision What certain decisions can you choose from, considering the hospital policies, professional practice standards, clients wishes and the clients anxiety level? In this situation, certain decisions you can consider are: To offer transfer to another room or to talk to the other patients family. Step 2: Determine the outcome. What is the goal? Consider the following questions: If the patient is offered transfer to another room, are there other rooms available? What type of room is it? How much can be the additional cost to be applied to the patients bill? Do the patient prefer being on a private single room? If you will talk to the other patient, what hospital policy can be applied to aid in the situation? What are the other patientss right regarding the matter? What could be the possible reaction of the other patients family. Step 3: Identify all alternative actions and the benefits and consequences of each. If the patient preferred to be on a single room, you need to properly explain the additional or the total cost to be applied to the bills plus, you need to arrange papers regarding patient transfer, have the room prepared and arranged. If the patient does not prefer to transfer on a single room due to financial disability, proceed to the other option available, which is to talk to

the other patients family. Talking to the other patients family requires human interaction skill, explaining to them the situation of the other patient, the hospital policy regarding visitation of family members and the patients right in the situation. Step 4: Arrive at the decision Consider the alternatives and the benefits and consequences of each decision. Make the decision then implement it. Step 5: Evaluate the decision This final step answers the question, was the goal achieved? Does the patient experience comfort after the action done?

Works Cited Kelly, P. (2012). Nursing Leadership and Management (3rd ed.). New York: Cengage Learning. Maam J. Polancos Handouts on Nursing Leadership and Management Pages 83-84