Collaborative Decision Making Through Shared Governance

Running Order: DECISION MAKING THROUGH SHARED GOVERNANCE 1

Student name

Institution

FEBRUARY 2017

DECISION MAKING THROUGH SHARED GOVERNANCE 2

Collaborative Decision Making Through Shared Governance: A Personal Case Study

I work in a hospital. Recently I attended a meeting bringing together professional

leaders from the various departments in the hospital. They included the Oncology, Maternity

and Step down Cardiac departments. The meeting was attended by committee members

Director Tuwan Ly, Manager Doreen as well as three supervisors from the Oncology

department. The Maternity and Step down Cardiac departments were each represented by two

supervisors.

The meeting was called to address an issue raised by nurses from the Oncology

department. The nurses from this department complained that they receive patients from the

Maternity as well as Step down Cardiac but they don’t have the requisite training to take care

of these patients. They complained that furthermore, they already have enough work load;

handling their own chemo patients. The chemo patients under their care need to be monitored

every hour; the administration of chemo medicines required the mandatory physical presence

of nurses to monitor their intake by patients, as well as to check for side effects and vitality

signs. The Oncology nurses further raised the concern about receiving patients from the

Maternity unit with oxygen drips and mag drips which require frequent and almost constant

monitoring. The Oncology department nurses requested that they should be trained on how to

handle the patients from these two other departments. They also requested that patient to

nurse ration should be reduced to enhance their efficiency. Finally, they requested that their

pay should be raised, particularly where high acute patients were concerned.

The main purpose of the committee meeting was to address the above issues raised by

the Oncology nurses. The Director started off the meeting by describing the above agenda of

the meeting. He explained that the nurses felt they were being overburdened with more acute

patients. He gave the opportunity to the Oncology department supervisors to clearly outline,

elaborate and elucidate the issues, so that the other participants in the meeting completely

DECISION MAKING THROUGH SHARED GOVERNANCE 3

understand the concerns under deliberation. Maria Mosqueda, one of the Oncology

department supervisors took up the responsibility of outlining the complaints from nurses in

her department. The complaints had been noted down earlier and she just read them out while

explaining. She explained that the Oncology nurses feel that they are receiving more acute

patients sent in by the other departments within the hospital. For example, the maternity

nurses frequently transfer patients to the oncology unit. She elaborated that this presents great

burden and complication to the Oncology nurses; especially because most of the patients

being wheeled in are in more critical medical conditions and have oxytocin and mag drips

which calls for greater vigilance and close attention by the nurses. Chemo patients also

require direct and constant monitoring. The sending in of critically ill and acute patients from

other departments evidently makes the work much harder for the Oncology nurses; increasing

the demands on them and making it much harder for them to give sufficient attention to each

patient. The Step down Cardiac department also sends in patients to the Oncology

department; forcing nurses to run code. The supervisor presented the Oncology nurses’

request that with the acute patients, the nurse to patient ratio should be 2-3 instead of 4. The

nurses also requested that their payment be increased in recompense to the increased duties.

After listening to the presentation by the Oncology supervisor, one of the Maternity

department supervisors explained that they send patients to the Oncology departments only

sometimes, when they do not have enough beds to accommodate the patients. They do this

with the knowledge that the Oncology department often has extra beds. The Maternity

supervisor requested that the practice be allowed to go on.

At this juncture, Doreen, one of the Oncology managers said that maternity nurses

should appreciate the work load of Oncology nurses as well as their operational system. She

said that Oncology nurses are not trained or well suited to handle unstable or critical patients

and that the presence of empty beds at the Oncology unit is not a warrant for the other

DECISION MAKING THROUGH SHARED GOVERNANCE 4

departments to transfer patients to it. She argued that nurses at the Oncology department are

willing and happy to assist other departments, but not with patients in unstable condition. She

said that the other departments must desist from sending in unstable patients, and that those

with continuing drip medication must have the drip discontinued before being let into the

Oncology department. She recapped by saying that the Oncology nurses beg for

understanding that they have their own acute patients to take care of, who require extensive

assistance.

As the meeting progressed, comments by the various participants made it clear that

the most probable solutions to the issues were threefold. The first probable solution is the

provision of more education and training to the Oncology nurses; to enable them provide

more professional and appropriate services to patients from other departments. The second

solution is to decrease the nurse to patient ratio one way or the other. The last resort would be

to avoid sending patients from other departments who need more attention.

Hospital Director Mr. Ly agreed with Doreen that the Oncology nurses will only

receive stable patients. He further authorized the Oncology department to refuse to admit

patients from other departments, in order to maintain the stipulated nurse to patient ratio. The

supervisors from the Maternity and the Step down Cardiac departments agreed with the plan

and declared that they would be sending in stable patients only, to the oncology department,

and only when in dire need.

I believe the process used to arrive at decisions in the meeting is a pure form of shared

governance. Shared governance is the concept of getting stakeholders to agree on issues and

to validate decisions that affect them (Olson, 2009). In raw and practical form, it entails a

group of people, stakeholders, getting together to discuss different issues that commonly

affect them all, with the primary aim of coming up with a solution that brings satisfaction to

DECISION MAKING THROUGH SHARED GOVERNANCE 5

everyone or most (Tambovtseva & Chernysh, 2015). The meeting and the resolutions arrived

at is a depiction and actualization of the concept of shared governance.

References

Bychkova, O. (2016). What is Shared Governance?. University Management: Practice and

Analysis, 105(5), 110-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/umj.2016.103.049

Olson, G. (2009). Exactly What Is 'Shared Governance’? The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Retrieved 5 February 2017, from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Exactly-What-Is-

Shared/47065/

Tambovtseva, M. & Chernysh, A. (2015). Workshop. EUSP. Retrieved 5 February 2017,

from https://eu.spb.ru/en/news/15739-methods-for-introducing-shared-governance-

into-public-universities

Place new order. It's free, fast and safe

Paper type

Deadline

Page count

550 words

Total price: $ 15.00

Our customers say

Jeff Curtis

USA, Student

"I'm fully satisfied with the essay I've just received. When I read it, I felt like it was exactly what I wanted to say, but couldn’t find the necessary words. Thank you!"

Ian McGregor

UK, Student

"I don’t know what I would do without your assistance! With your help, I met my deadline just in time and the work was very professional. I will be back in several days with another assignment!"

Shannon Williams

Canada, Student

"It was the perfect experience! I enjoyed working with my writer, he delivered my work on time and followed all the guidelines about the referencing and contents."