• This Discussion Thread has 8 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 month ago by Maame.
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    • #3769
      Sharon
      Member

      Think of a time of difficult change in an organization that you were part of or affected you. What was the reason for the change?  Did you resist the change? Where did you see yourself during that change – as an innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority, laggard or a rejecter?

      Using the above questions as a guide, reflect on a change that happened in your work environment.

    • #11668
      Melanie
      Member

      We’ ve recently undertaken a big change on my program at work. From the time of launch over 1 year ago, any referrals to our program that were “off label” diagnosis were not accepted. We would inform the referring physician who would then inform the patient. This recently changed in December. The client now wants us to proceed with contacting the “off label” patients and start the enrolment process into our program and navigate the reimbursement investigation. Should reimbursement not be available, we are to inform both the patient and physician that they cannot be enrolled and will need to look at other treatment options. If there is reimbursement available, then we can complete the full enrolment. This change doesn’t have a big impact on me, but it does affect our patients and physicians. It gives them hope that we will assist and help them and in the end, if there is no reimbursement available, we cannot offer any help or assistance. As a nurse, I am supposed to advocate for my patients and this process doesn’t allow me to do that and I feel terrible calling someone to tell them that they will need to seek other treatment options as there is no funding for them at this time. The whole reason for this change is to determine if there is funding out there for “off label” patients and to grow our program and so far, we’ve had no luck. I personally don’t like this change but, I consider myself an “early majority” . I prefer the status quo, but I will adopt the change. As mentioned it hasn’t had a big impact on my workload but it does affect the patients and physicians. Having to close this door and tell them to find other options is very difficult and often, this news is not well received.

    • #11957
      Sandra
      Member

      The big change that happened in my job was we ended up losing our manger and had to get a new one. Our manger of over 20 years got a position that was better for her career and it was a fast change within a week. The hospital had no one to take her position, so after asking a few nurses one finally said yes. This job was only temporary until someone else was found. The biggest issue was it was an RN from our floor that had no management experience and was only a nurse for 4 years. Most of the staff were in shock and didn’t take it very lightly and I was included in that. I will say that I was a rejecter when this first came into effect, I couldn’t get used to one for our co-workers now being our boss. After a few months of her being the manager things seemed to be ok, she listened to our issues, helped up make some small changes and I think it was good for us and also that she worked there so she knew the problems that we were already having so in the end I will say I ended up being a late majority from a rejector. After 6 months she ended up not staying because she said “management wasn’t for her” plus she couldn’t see us struggle down the hall anymore. We ended up getting a new manager who worked with us before has only been a nurse for not even 7 years and has no management experience except Mcdonalds, we have all rejected this new manager because he doesn’t care about the staff he only cares about pleasing the higher ups at the hospital and because of that we have had a mass exit of the senior staff including myself. I hope in the end the un it gets better because I really enjoyed working there and I miss everyone but you have to do what is good for yourself and you mental health.

      • #11990
        Heather
        Member

        I found your post interesting because I have lived through some poor managers. I find a lot of them are lacking in skills needed to relate to people and convey that they are important and not just a number. I think you have to have support of people to succeed as a manager.

    • #11987
      Andrea
      Member

      Here is an issue I think we can all relate to, the changes brought about by COVID. More specifically for me were the changes in use of PPE in all in person interactions during the early days of COVID.
      The reason for the change was definitely the fear of the unknown. This was also a cause of resistence to change for some staff members. I was not a resistor to change. It seemed obvious to me that something had to be done in order to protect everyone from this virus. I was an early adopter but as more information came to light about the effectiveness of change I think I became more of an innovator. I began working on different ways to make it easier for myself and my coworkers to implement a change to wearing full PPE into patients’ homes.
      It was not easy as the public were so divided on the issues of whether PPE would a) actually protect them, and b) make them appear “contaminated” to the outside world. Also the vast difference in education about COVID and all of the misinformation could make some visits quite challenging. So to make things easier I did alot of troubleshooting with my coworkers as to logistics such as how to decide where to leave your winter coat on a snowy day, do you risk taking it in the house or do you leave it in the car and just wear your PPE into the house? Will the patient let you enter the house before donning your gown and mask?
      The other step was educating the patients regarding our policies and why they were in place, which was to protect them and ourselves from COVID. I even had a long term care facility tell me I had to remove my N95, (which I had just put on at their door due to their outbreak status), and replace it with a surgical mask provided by them.
      Lots of frustrating situations leading to lots of education and practicing of patiences.

      • #11988
        Melanie
        Member

        I don’t envy the situation you were put in Andrea. I am very thankful that I’ve been able to work remotely from home since 2016. When COVID happened, I was lucky to already be in the safety of my own home. There was so much division and so much indecision during COVID. Those of us who were all for the PPE and vaccines and those who were against it all. Having to go into people’s homes to do home visits would be very difficult in regards to wearing PPE. Very frustrating for health care workers for sure as you are always advocating for patients and their safety and health. Being faced with a pandemic where education was lacking only adds to the stress nurses were already under. I have many friends who left their careers in Nursing during the pandemic as they were just too stressed out and burned out.

      • #11996
        Sandra
        Member

        There was definitely a lot of miss communication when it came to PPE through Covid, what to wear what not to wear I even remember staff double gloving and double gowning through it. We had to reuse masks to save them as the hospitals didn’t want to run out I found it crazy. I definitely didn’t adapt to that change very lightly when it first happened but I get the frustration that we dealt with as nurses and still how frustrating it is today.

    • #11989
      Heather
      Member

      At my work, we have had many managers over the years, it became that turnover was what expected. Two years ago, we got a new office manager and nobody expected that this manager would stay much less that things would get better. At first a lot of people fought this manager all the way and created a lot of drama and chaos. I think they were change rejectors, but the issue was that things were such a mess and it was constant chaos and drama, resulting in a lot of poor care delivery. I would call myself an early adopter of change because I felt that change was needed. This worked out well for myself and the workplace but only because we have a very compatible group and a competent manager with lots of experience. It was like a breath of fresh air after so many years of toxicity.

    • #12023
      Maame
      Member

      I remember a time when my unit manager was leaving because she was retiring and we were getting a new manager. I was actually happy because I personally wasn’t seeing any improvement on our unit, so having a new leader was exciting. I saw myself as a early adopter in this particular situation becasuse I was open and willing to see what our new manager would bring to the table to revamp our unit.

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