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124 unit 2 | Working Within the Organization CikguOnline
The current health-care delivery environment Fairness also means considering equally all
demands efficient, cost-effective care. Delegating requests for special consideration.The quickest way
appropriately can increase efficiency and save to alienate members of a team is to be unfair. It is
money. Likewise, incorrect delegation can decrease important to discuss with team members any deci-
efficiency and cost money. When delegating tasks sions that have been made that may appear unfair
to individuals who cannot perform the job, the RN to any one of them. Allow the team members to
must often go back to perform the task. participate in making decisions regarding assign-
Although institutions often need to “float” staff ments.Their participation will decrease resentment
to other units, maintaining continuity, if at all pos- and increase cooperation. In some health-care
sible, is important. Keeping the same staff members institutions, team members make such decisions as
on the unit all the time, for example, allows them to a group.
develop familiarity with the physical setting and
routines of the unit as well as the types of clients the Learning Opportunities
unit services. Time is lost when staff members are Including assignments that stimulate motivation,
reassigned frequently to different units. Although learning, and assisting team members to learn new
physical layouts may be the same, client needs, unit tasks and take on new challenges is part of the role
routines, use of space, and availability of supplies are of the RN.
often different.Time spent to orient reassigned staff
members takes time away from delivery of client Health
care. However, when staff members are reassigned,
Some aspects of caregiving jobs are more stressful
it is important for them to indicate their skill level
than others. Rotating team members through the
and comfort in the new setting. It is just as impor-
more difficult jobs may decrease stress and allow
tant for the staff members who are familiar with the
empathy to increase among the members. Special
setting to identify the strengths of the reassigned
health needs, such as family emergencies or special
person and build on them.
physical problems of team members, also need to
be addressed. If some team members have difficul-
Appropriateness
ty accepting the needs of others, the situation
Appropriateness is another task-related concern.
should be discussed with the team, bearing in mind
Nothing can be more counterproductive than, for
the employee’s right to privacy when discussing
example, floating a coronary care nurse to labor and
sensitive issues.
delivery. More time will be spent teaching the nec-
essary skills than on safe mother-baby care. Compatibility
Assigning an educated, licensed staff member to
No matter how hard you may strive to get your team
perform non-nursing functions to protect safety is
to work together,it just may not happen.Some peo-
also poor use of personnel.
ple work together better than others. Helping peo-
ple develop better working relationships is part of
Relationship-Oriented Concerns team building. Creating opportunities for people to
share and learn from each other increases the over-
Relationship-oriented concerns include fairness,
all effectiveness of the team.
learning opportunities, health concerns, compati-
As the leader, you may be forced to intervene in
bility, and staff preferences.
team member disputes. Many individuals find it
Fairness difficult to work with others they do not like person-
ally. It sometimes becomes necessary to explain that
Fairness means distributing the workload evenly in
liking another person is a plus but not a necessity in
terms of both the physical requirements and the
the work setting and that personal problems have no
emotional investment in providing health care.The
place in the work environment. For example:
nurse who is caring for a dying client may have less
physical work to do than another team member, Laura had been a labor and delivery room supervi-
but in terms of emotional care to the client and sor in a large metropolitan hospital for 5 years before
family, he or she may be doing double the work of she moved to another city. Because a position similar
another staff member. to the one she left was not available, she became a