I never looked into the organization of my hospital prior to this assignment. After doing research, I learned that Kotters 8 step organizational change model is the best organizational assessment tool for my facility. I work in a 300 bed hospital and in a 20 bed critical care unit. Being in the KC area, we are surrounded by many hospitals. This being said, it is important for our hospital to make positive changes to promote better patient safety and satisfaction. If hospitals cannot stay up on current changes in healthcare, the patient will move on to the next hospital that is where you lose your patient census. But, if you are not working with your bedside nursing staff, you can also find yourself in a bit of a pickle. I have observed multiple times just in this past year, where changes have been implemented in our facility. The frustration comes from directors or managers implementing these changes without identifying how it will directly effect the nursing staff. Although changes are made to better patient safety and outcomes, it is extremely important to provide nursing staff with the training that is needed. Kotter’s step 2 is creating a coalition. While most times the coalition is the big dogs or the higher nursing management. I truly believe if you get bedside nurses in this coalition prior to making the change, that will create more ideas for change and even a better education to those nurses who work side by side. I also love step 4, Communicating the change vision. I like how this step allows for feedback from your nursing staff on the future change. Often times, the change is implemented without caring about the feedback of the nurses who are carrying out the change. This allows time for management to answer any questions or concerns the staff has all while open up topics that need to be discussed prior to change. I have heard more than once “why fix it if it’s not broken?” This step allows for management to inform all areas of the hospital why this change is needing to be had. I believe that change is very important to hospital settings, but what manner it is done in has a huge impact on the type of support and feedback the organization will receive.

Thomsen, S. (2013, February 17). Kotter’s 8 step organizational change model. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxtF4OXzhyI#action=share