Description of Health Care Organization
A nursing home offers services such as housekeeping, medical services,
recreation activities, comfort, safety, and healthy meals. Our idea of a long-term care
facility is different. It will offer all these services, but will also have additional
services. First, it will have enhanced physical activities, not only for recreation but
also to promote health. It will have a walking track that allows the elderly to use their
wheelchair. This will allow the elderly to enjoy nature in a well-maintained
ecosystem. The track should have alternating open sunning points and shades and
should be decorated beautifully with flowers. Another physical activity will be an
indoor gymnasium, which allow the elderly enhance their muscles with support. It
will have consideration of their moving difficulties.
In order to promote successful aging, the facility will offer psychological
services. Most seniors have the mentality that they are abandoned at the moment they
are placed in a nursing home. The facility will eliminate this mentality through the
provision of mental therapy by expert psychologists. This will be in an attempt to
eliminate stressors and reduce chances of the elderly having cognitive issues, which
lead to amnesia. Another added feature will be spiritual support from diverse spiritual
leaders.
Target Population Served
Population Served
The facility will aim to cater for persons with chronic ailments requiring
consistent care and the aged members of the society, needing care support. The
chronic ailing patients include those suffering from advanced debilitating conditions
that hinder one from normal function. The facility will provide support systems that
will help these patients to lead a relatively healthy lifestyle while at the same time
receiving care from personnel who understand their situation. These patients will also
be accorded an opportunity to interact with other patients in the similar state, therefore
having a platform for psychological healing (Singh, 2014). The elderly patients
admitted will include those that have no support system back at home to take care of
them and monitor their day-to-day situation. These patients will be given an
opportunity to interact with each other as a form of psychological and social help.
Located in Baltimore metropolitan area, the facility will be able to admit a broad
scope of patients; both form the metropolitan area and its suburbs. The fact that it will
be located in a metropolitan area means that it will be a reference point for patients
suffering from chronic ailments but need a recovery station before being released to
their respective homes. Therefore, the facility will have a care center, next to the
hospital, to take care of these patients before there are released to their respective
homes. The combination of temporary and permanent patients will allow the staff to
gain the needed expertise to deal with every patient Admitted into the facility. It will
also provide the facility with the needed finances to cater for the permanent patients
and the elderly persons who have no means to contribute to their stay in the facility
financially.
Staffing
Staffing Criteria
The hiring of staff will take a combination of skills and professionalism. The
reason for this is because, care, and unlike medicine is a combination of both skills
and professionalism. Therefore the staff who will be hired must have the necessary
skills to deal with patients who are naturally difficult (McSweeney-Feld & Molinari,
2016). They also must be professional enough to understand and know their roles, to
ensure that they fulfill their roles as caregivers without bias. More so, the staff must
show empathy and care since they are dealing with patients who are physically and
emotionally unstable. This needs staff who have the patience to withstand the
difficulty of dealing with mentally unstable patients.
Hiring Criteria
Professionalism
This is the most important attribute to consider when hiring is professionalism.
This means that the staff must be qualified to work with this kind of patients.
Nevertheless, the fact that one is a nurse or a medical professional will automatically
not qualify them to work in the institution. This is because working with acute ailing
patients requires, not only the professionalism but also the empathy to withstand the
difficulties these patients bring. Therefore, staff must show a willingness to utilize and
combine their professionalism in a manner that is beneficial to the patients, in the long
term. More so, the professionalism is not explicitly bound in academic qualification
but rather in being able to behave ethically and morally even when there is no figure
of authority (Pratt, 2015). Therefore, professionalism, in this case, is about selfawareness and control in dealing with difficult patients and extremely ill patients. It
requires a person with a willingness to withstand the challenges that come with taking
care of the elderly, the physically, and mentally unstable. As such, before hiring, one
must show or justify their professionalism in being able to deal with difficult patients.
Skills
When hiring, it is essential to hire persons with the right skills to work with
such a special group of patients. It is important not to confuse academic capability
with individual skills. When dealing with patients with chronic ailments or the
elderly, skills refer to the ability to withstand and understand the challenges being
faced by these patients. Thence, skills refer to the capability of withstanding the
difficulties these patients pose to those mandated to take care of them. One must have
the willingness to shelf their pride to take care of these patients without feeling as if
they are being burdened.
Calling
Not everyone can be able to take care of their sick or elderly; the reason why
there are homes for the elderly and sick. While some people can comfortably take
care of their sick, others will cringe when asked to do it, even when it’s their children
or even parents. Therefore, taking care of the sick or the elderly is a calling that needs
to emanate from ones inner calling to such a task. Therefore, when hiring, it is crucial
to identify those that do not seek this kind of employment merely for the financial
reward it confers but instead for the fulfillment it gives them in taking care of those
who cannot do that for themselves. This is a difficult attribute to identify
automatically, but the hiring panel must establish criteria that will allow them to
discern those who have a calling to working in such a facility, from those who are
merely driven by the financial benefits that such an occupation confers them (Pratt,
2015).
Needed Staff
The facility requires as much staff members as it can support. The determining
factor to how many staff are needed should be effective in offering the right kind of
services. More so, the staff must not be overworked. Therefore, there must be enough
staff to fit into two or three shifts comfortably. Dealing with critically ill patients and
the elderly is incredibly exhausting and thus a need to employ the right number of
staff to avoid overworking (McSweeney-Feld & Molinari, 2016). It will also provide
the facility with the flexibility to deal with the most urgent of patients while allowing
the staff to receive the needed and ethically apportioned kind of rest. More so, the
facility can employ the services of volunteer-ship especially form those institutions
with volunteer platforms for their students. The volunteer platform can also be
extended to community members who feel and have the willingness to work with the
elderly. This will help the facility ease pressure on its staff while at the same time it
will provide the facility with a platform for hiring emotionally and psychologically
attuned persons.
Quality Improvement
Improving the Health Facility and Making It Healthy
The best way to improve the healthcare facility is through staffing. The staffs
are the system that runs the facility, and hence any improvement in function or quality
of care can only be instituted through addressing the staff members. The staff
members need to be trained well enough to understand their roles and responsibilities
to guarantee the facility of improved function. Therefore, the best way to ensure that
the healthcare facility is improved and healthy practice are maintained is through
human resource management strategies (Pratt, 2015). These strategies include those
empowerment modules that allow staff members to grow and find purpose in the
institution. They include:
Training Programs and Seminars
These enlighten the staff on how best to deal with patients, while at the same
time educating them on the new formalities of treating patients. As a result, the staff
can provide the most advanced form of treatment to their patients. The staff becomes
more efficient and avoids apparent mistakes. The healthcare facility generally
improves as every staff member knows and understands their role in taking care of the
sick and in ensuring that patients are adequately cared of.
Superior Payment Packages
Satisfied staff will perform their duties productively unlike those who do so
grudgingly. Therefore, it is vital that the staff is remunerated well to ensure that they
find the fulfillment and purpose to work in the facility. Well paid staff are better
placed to deal with difficulties, even when such difficulties are complicated because
they find a reason and purpose to work in the institution. Poorly remunerated staff
will work half-heartedly and hence make assumptions and leave work undone. It is
crucial that the staff are well paid, as a motivation agenda.
Resources Provision
The facility management must provide the right resources to enable the staff to
work efficiently and safely. Working with the sick and the elderly is potentially
dangerous to the staff. Therefore the management need provide the staff members
with the right equipment to treat and handle the patients (McSweeney-Feld &
Molinari, 2016). This will ensure that the staff is comfortable working in their stations
and do not feel obliged to seek third-party intervention. It also allows the patients to
seek the response of the healthcare providers as they are more receptive to their
difficulties.
Noted Difference
The main difference that will be noted will be that of improved service
provision. Different from other facilities, the facility will be able to cater for both the
critically ill and the elder with ease, as the staff know and understand their roles.
Other facilities usually differentiate the care facility with that of healthcare due to the
difficulty encountered in combining these two facilities. More so, it is extremely
challenging to ensure that the staff finds the motivation to work with both the
critically ill and the elderly.
The other difference will be in the quality and the expansiveness of the
services provided by the facility. Unlike other facilities, this facility will be able to
provide not only medical assistance to the elderly but also advanced care for the sick;
coupled with an extensive care package that involves recovery care.
References
McSweeney-Feld, H., & Molinari, C. (2016). Dimensions of Long-Term Care
Management: An Introduction, Second Edition. Michigan: Health
Administration Press.
Pratt, J. (2015). Long-Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum. Massachusetts:
Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Singh, D. (2014). Effective Management of Long-Term Care Facilities.
Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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