RESTRUCTING

How does restructuring an award winning unit affect engagement of nurses?

How does restructuring an award winning unit affect engagement of nurses?

Introduction & background situation

Hospital restructuring and downsizing has taken place in most developed countries during the past ten years. A small but growing body of research findings has identified aspects of these changes that serve as sources of stress for nursing staff, as well as features of the restructuring process that contribute to more effective transitions. This research reports results of a longitudinal study of hospital restructuring and downsizing on nursing staff perceptions of hospital effectiveness.

This capstone project is about downsizing restructing of a hospital unit. Due to thids downsizing the staff is not needed and are being displace to other unit. They are being displaced by seniority. The staff is upset and now their moreal and value has gone down. The staff that are officially on the unit have compromise patient care, not working as a team, and have displace attitudes on the unit towards each other and patients.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this paper to explore the peocess of implementation and how this the restructuring of the unit affects the nurses.

Discussion

Restructuringinvolves other changes in thehospital which have negative effects on nurses. Staff layoffs, cutbacks, closing units, and deterioration in facilities and services are additional Stressors in nursing. Research shows that job insecurity resulting from restructuringand downsizingis associated with psychological distress and poor health. Thus, greater job insecurity should lead to higher burnout in nurses. Employees who perceive their contract has been violated are more likely to react with cynicism towards theorganization. (Blegan, 2008)

Social support is a resource which can alleviate thedeleterious effects of downsizing. Research demonstrates thebeneficial effects of social support for well-being. Direct effects of social support are found when burnout is lower with is lower with higher social support independent of stress levels. Support may be in theform of information, practical assistance, and/or emotional support. At thesame time, to theextent that nursesare unaware of thedirection to which their hospital is moving in the downsizingand restructuringprocess, they would be expected to be more insecure.

Of major importance is the impact of restructuring and downsizing on the personnel in hospitals, on the quality of care delivered to patients, and, in the final analysis, on the health outcomes of patients themselves. Since downsizing is a fairly recent phenomenon, these issues have only begun to be explored. What do nursing staff, hospital managers and health policy experts say about the results of downsizing? What recommendations do they make for the future? The impact of nursing staff downsizing on the work environment and on nurses' nursing care performance has been investigated. However, the majority of studies rely on nurse self report.

Many terms have been used for the organizational and operational changes undertaken by hospitals in the past decade. The most common ones are restructuring, reengineering, redesign, and downsizing. Restructuring is the broadest term and is sometimes used as a catch-all for all types of ...