Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of week.

Reply to my peers

Peer 1

A change agent is someone who can directly influence and manage the change process. This can be done through communication, managing group dynamics, and steering the movement toward the goal (Murray, 2017). One example of when I was a change agent was when I noticed that my workplace had very few bedside workers for the patients, and instead, nurses had to fulfill these roles on top of their nursing work. This put much strain on the nurses. I decided to ask around, gathering information from other nurses and staff who noticed the same problem, and together we made an appeal to the authorities. The hospital is still working on hiring more healthcare employees to fulfill the bedside role, but due to the hospital’s financial situation, the change may take more time to be implemented. Another time I was a change agent was when there was poor communication between nurses, physicians, and patients. I also asked around in the workplace to pinpoint the sources of this issue, and I worked with other staff members to improve this communication. I encouraged other nurses to ask more questions and give more clarifying statements, and communication has improved.

Peer 2

A change agent is an important element in setting a solid foundation for any organization’s success. To be a change agent one must take on the role of a leader in initiating appropriate changes that guide the corporation to achieve the desired outcome pertaining to the corporation’s mission. In particular, one becomes a change agent when they identify the problems that the corporation has, and collaboratively develop a corrective action plan with the members of the team to include steps to correcting the identified issue. A change agent also observes and distinguishes opportunities at an appropriate time and formulates ideal strategies to help lead the organization to the desired productivity levels (Davis, Corless, & Nicholas, 2018). I believe in my current position, I have been a change agent by creating an alliance in the medical department and initiating real-time educational sessions with the patient population to keep them informed on the current changes taking place as well as plans to keep them safe during this COVID-19 pandemic, Hepatitis A epidemic and any other “breakouts” affecting our community. These two initiatives have helped in improving service delivery as well as decreased the number of grievances being received due to the patients being unsatisfied with the knowledge being provided.

I came up with a strategy where nurses could create awareness to all the providers on the appropriate measures to ensure appropriate medical treatment is being provided to the patients while they are incarcerated. The nurses are on the pods daily and they are the eyes and ears for some of the patients due to the security staff only having minimal medical training. As the nurses of the facility, our main focus is the safety and well-being of the patients within the facility. The educational sessions were meant to provide the needed information to the patient population on the current “break-outs” in the community that could also affect those in the facility, as this is a detention facility and the patient population comes directly from the streets. Providing education on the current epidemic and pandemic events and the necessary precautions being taking inside the detention facility allows the patients to be in the loop of what is going on and helps to decrease the stress and anxiety that goes along with being incarcerated. The two initiatives have significantly increased patient satisfaction within the detention facility.

Reference:

Davis, S. M., Corless, I., & Nicholas, P. (2018). The critical need for global nursing leadership.DNP Education, Practice, and Policy: Redesigning Advanced Practice for the 21st Century, 331.