Functions of the Committee and Role of Attendees

Committees consist of employee participation in decision-making and a team work approach to decrease errors (Amirabadi, Maleki, Salehi, & Watankhah, 2016). The collaborative practice committee at XXXX Hospital meets on the first Wednesday of each month to discuss topics with staff on how to improve the unit. The function of the committee is to present topics such as falls, staff turnover, patient satisfaction, medication errors, and new information. Members of the unit attending the meeting have the ability to voice their opinions, questions, and concerns on how to go about changing and improving the unit. If needed, attendees will vote on new practices on the unit.

Personal Observation of Interactions

At the collaborative practice meeting, there were four main speakers, one manager, the clinical educator, the director, two respiratory therapist representatives, and over twenty floor staff including nurses, monitor tech, certified nursing assistants, and health unit coordinators. The collaborative practice president and vice president presented on the main scheduled topics and asked for audience feedback. Multiple staff joined in the conversation, some presenting additional issues to address. Employees took turns asking questions and adding to the conversation. At the end of the meeting, the two collaborative practice chairs spoke of surveys, when the next meeting would be, and where the next meeting would be.

Decisions of Shared Governance

Shared governance is a model that was introduced to improve the nurse work environment, satisfaction, and retention. The model was created to implement core values and beliefs that the professional nursing practice embraces while achieving quality care (Anthony, 2004). In the collaborative practice meeting, staff were able to ask questions, input their thoughts, present concerns, listen, and add to the overall conversation. In assessing the meeting to determine if shared governance was a factor, this writer believe that it was a part of the meeting. The reason being is because nurses with different roles and experience met to converse about how to make the cardiac unit a better place not only for patients, but staff as well.

Conclusion

Committees are an important aspect in medical organizations. They assist in breaking down issues in meetings by presenting them to staff. The meetings then accumulate information from staff members that are concerned, have questions, or simply want to place input. Meetings at Aspirus proudly uses shared governance because it is a vital role in committee meetings to help nurses feel that they are heard.

References

Amirabadi, H., Maleki, M., Salehi, M., & Watankhah, S. (2016, March 8). An Exploration of the Role of Hospital Committees to Enhance Productivity. Retrieved from US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804034/

Anthony, M. (2004, January). Shared Governance Models: The Theory, Practice, and Evidence. Retrieved from The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing: http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume92004/No1Jan04/SharedGovernanceModels.aspx

Committee. (n.d.). Retrieved from Cambridge Dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/committee