Although managing a hospital may be difficult because of the differences in personalities of the staff and continuous challenges, positive changes are still possible, and the only way to achieve them is to express full commitment to the nursing profession. This process requires knowledge of appropriate organizational and change theories. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that the organizational and change management theories can help to make changes more effective, lasting, and fast. More specifically, I will analyze how the theoretical background made an important contribution to managing patients’ pain levels.
Managing patients’ pain levels is one of multiple responsibilities of nurse practitioners. Pain is usually divided into chronic and acute pain, pain from a chronic deteriorating condition, or pain from receiving palliative care (Wells, Pasero, & McCaffery, 2008). Due to multiple advances in the field of pain management such as pain assessment, pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, licensed nurses in today’s hospitals have an opportunity to provide maximum pain relief to their patients.
Changes that occurred in the Intermediate Medical Care Unit concerning the pain management clearly showed that efficient organization and collaboration can lead to positive modifications in the hospital functioning. To be more specific, during a 6-month period, nurses in the IMC implemented a special assessment and treatment plan, which presupposed applying methods to diagnose, evaluate, intervene, and document pain and its management. The goals of this plan consisted in encouraging and supporting a continuous study, evaluation, and research related to pain management nursing care. The results of that plan’s implementation showed that patients reported lower pain levels and improved health conditions.
Undoubtedly, positive changes would have been impossible if nurse practitioners had not collaborated with patients, occupational therapists, pharmacists, and physical therapists to provide specific measures to manage pain. Through this cooperation, nurses received relevant information about pain assessment and barriers that may affect nurses’ management of pain. All nurses were encouraged to discuss and share ideas on nonpharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, complementary, and alternative interventions for pain. In addition, during the implementation of the assessment and treatment plan, nurses spent a considerable amount of time on documenting and analyzing patients’ self-reporting. Since this activity is considered the best pain assessment tool, nurses should do their best to use it more frequently.
Despite the general progress in pain management, one may suggest that further improvements would be necessary to reinforce positive changes in this sector. As far as I am concerned, organization and change theory would help the hospital to achieve this goal. First of all, according to Nagelkerk (2005), the period of change should be based on several principles such as keeping performance results in prime objective, encouraging education and improvisation, and increasing the number of nurses involved. Second, administration and nurses should not be afraid of innovation, additional work, and failures, as they are integral parts of every transformation (Nagelkerk, 2005). Following these rules, nurse practitioners could achieve significant changes in performance. In order to achieve better results in pain management, nurses should have clear, compelling, and enduring goals.
A wide range of approaches to change management and practice development is available to apply in a hospital. In my opinion, the best approaches to managing pain levels are action research (Dempsey, 2008), continuous quality improvement (Woo et al., 2011), person-centered practice (McCormack et al., 2010), and ongoing professional development (Lee, 2011). Furthermore, administration should promote and provide education for stimulation, knowledge, and skills required for professional growth (Pain Management Nursing, 2015). Undoubtedly, the establishment of standards of nursing education and clinical nursing practice in pain management should also be the primary concern of every health care provider.
Positive changes in pain management could also be achieved with the help of the American Pain Society’s programs (Wells, Pasero, & McCaffery, 2008). To be more specific, this organization presented guidelines for nurses to address pain problems of patients. Thus, a nurse should be able to recognize and treat pain promptly, effectively reassess and adjust pain management plan, and monitor outcomes of pain treatment (Wells, Pasero, & McCaffery, 2008). The patients’ satisfaction with pain management would be the best indicator that nurses acquired necessary skills, and that changes taking place in the IMC are positive and encouraging.
Evidence from this work suggests that effective pain management is the primary concern of nursing practitioners. To start ongoing and positive changes in this area, one needs to apply a variety of organizational and change management theories. They allow the hospital’s administration to involve all personnel, increase self-awareness and professionalism, and create opportunities for shared learning and knowledge exchange. An example from the IBC unit clearly illustrates that the theoretical background can significantly improve patients’ pain levels and encourage nurses to continue their professional growth. It is extremely important to keep implementing the change management theory as it has the potential to make patients’ treatment more satisfying and effective.
