Problem Solving and Decision Making in NHS Hospitals

This report discusses the problem of shortage of workforce in NHS hospitals and its impact on employees and the organization. It includes a PESTLE analysis, fishbone diagram, and evaluation of alternative solutions to absenteeism. The recommended solutions are improvement in the work environment and flexible working. The report also provides a plan for implementing the decision and success indicators to measure its effectiveness.

PROBLEM SOLVING
AND DECISION
MAKING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
A research-informed discussion on the nature and impact of the complex problem on employees
and their organisations................................................................................................................3
A PESTLE analysis of the macro-environmental factors contributing to the complex problem.4
A research-informed cause-and-effect analysis, using Fishbone Diagram, of the complex problem
.....................................................................................................................................................5
An evaluation of alternative solutions to absenteeism with an aim of choosing the most
appropriate solution among these alternatives............................................................................6
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................7
a plan to implement the decision you’ve made to solve the complex problem..........................7
success indicators to measure the effectiveness of your decision...............................................8
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Problem solving is basically the process of identifying, analysing, finding alternatives for a
particular problem occurred in the company. It is the way by which the solutions are determined and
chosen to overcome barriers and challenges in achieving the organisational goals. To run a company
successfully and smoothly, the leaders should train their employees and and build up the problem
solving techniques. Whereas the decision making is a cognitive process, the managerial as well as
the organisational objectives are depended on the decision making. Selecting an appropriate option
from the alternative choices is called decision making. A decision can be made through an intuitive
process or the reasoned process. Decisions plays a major role in sustaining the activities of the
business and the functioning of organisation. The focal point of this report is the NHS hospitals.
These are established under the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. the issue
they are facing is the shortage of staff (Klein, and Crandall, 2018). This report consists a pestle
analysis, fish bone diagram, selection of solution from the alternatives and implementation of the
decision.
TASK 1
A research-informed discussion on the nature and impact of the complex problem on
employees and their organisations.
NHS hospitals are presently facing the problem of shortage of workforce. One of the biggest
challenges is in nursing with 41000 empty nurse vacancies. Apart from this the adult social care is
also facing the same issues like NHS. There are almost about 1.1 million FTE jobs in the adult
social care, and the vacancies are rising day by day. Approx one in ten social worker and approx one
in eleven care worker jobs are vacant. The Brexit have created more risks in short as well as
medium term. The government of UK has tried to increase the number the nurses and the health
professionals, they also have trained about 10000 people but which wasn't successful so far. This
problem has impacted the employees and the organisation as well (Lassoued, Awad, and Guirat,
2020).
Impact of less workforce on employees
Around 27.9 million nurses has been estimated in the global nursing workforce and the
shortage of the nurses was estimated about 5.9 million nurses. If there will be less workforce in the
NHS hospitals or nursing sector, the working employees will get overburdened by the work. They
will not be able to complete the work with specialisation and within the given time limit. The work
will get delayed because of which the patients will suffer. The overburden of the work on the

employees will make them quit their job and this will result in more shortage of the workforce of
the NHS hospitals (Haendler, and Frysak, 2018).
Impact of the less workforce on the organisation
If the NHS hospitals is running out of the workforce then it will effect their image as their
work will get delayed due to less workforce. The people will not prefer going their which will
severely impact their reputation in the market. This will result in decreasing profitability of the NHS
hospitals (Yusal, and et. Al, 2021).
A PESTLE analysis of the macro-environmental factors contributing to the complex problem.
 POLITICAL – these factors includes the environmental regulations, tax policies, tariffs,
political stability etc. These factors influence complex problem of the NHS hospital. For
instance any new tax reforms can change the whole system of generating the revenue, which
will effect the payout of the employees.
 ECONOMIC – these factors include the interest, inflation, wages, working hours,
unemployment and many more. These factors can impact the problem faced by the NHS
hospitals. For instance, if the company is offering low wages to the employees, then they
might quit their job because of the low wages.
 SOCIAL - with the exposure of social media and the improved educational system, patients
expectations have been increased a lot, they tend to have the much improved knowledge of
the treatment options which have became the new challenge for the workforce of the NHS
hospitals (Espeland, and et. Al, 2018).
 TECHNOLOGICAL – with the advancement in the technology, the healthcare is getting
improved day by day. The scanning tools are buy-able and for managing the conditions
several pumps and tools has been created. These result in high standard of care to the
patients and make NHS's workers able to do automate and speedy tasks. The technological
factors give them ease in working and they will stay truly committed to the job.
 LEGAL – patients who are unhappy with the services given by NHS, they are taking their
grievances to the legal level. NHS has also faced litigations cases from the dissatisfied
patients. So the employees have to work hard to train themselves and make their patients
happy.
 ENVIRONMENTAL – one of the biggest contributor to the toxic waste is the medical
sector. It is expected by them to reduce the waste and treat them with care. The NHS has
been under fire from various environmental activist organizations. So the workers are trying

to lessen the quantity of the waste (Keough, 2019).
A research-informed cause-and-effect analysis, using Fishbone Diagram, of the complex
problem
The main complex problem of the NHS hospitals is the shortage of the workforce.
The causes by which the shortage of workforce is happening are :-
 VIOLENCE IN THE HEALTHCARE SETTING – the nurses represent the profession
most aggressive in the workplace, as they suffer verbal abuse and loud vocal tones which is
most common form of violence. In comparison with outpatient setting nurses, the inpatient
nurses suffers the most (Zaree, and Nahravanian, 2018).
 NURSE BURNOUT – the nurses starts working and then figure out that that the its not like
how they thought it would be. Some nurses works a while take experience burnout and then
leave the profession. The nursing turnover is falling down.
 AGING WORKFORCE - by the time the nursing workforce is also ageing. Presently
there are m ore then 1 million nurses who are older then 50 years.
 CAREER AND FAMILY – the majority of the working nurses is female and during the
childbearing years some of them cut back and some of them leave the profession and move
to a new job (Zhang, and et. Al, 2018).
The 4 p's impacting the problem of shortage of workforce are :-
 POLICIES - NHS don't have any suitable policy that could help in reducing the shortage
of workforce.
 PROCEDURES – NHS is not having the sequenced procedures of operations which makes
it hard for then workforce to operate (Hallo, and Nguyen, 2021).
 PLANT - NHS is using outdated machinery and devices by which the workers can not give
their full effectiveness in their work.
 PEOPLE – due to the overburden of work due to less workforce, the workers get frustrated
sometimes which results in conflicts and negative environment (Sibanda, and Humbe,
2022).

An evaluation of alternative solutions to absenteeism with an aim of choosing the most
appropriate solution among these alternatives
There are various ways in which NHS can reduce the absenteeism and improve the
attendance of their employees which are discussed below ( Rahman, 2019) :-
 CREATE ATTENDANCE POLICY - the workers of NHS should know what they are
expected to do. The attendance policy of NHS should state that how employees have to
report their seniors., how the company will take actions regarding the unsanctioned absence
and what will be the consequences of the over absenteeism.
 REWARDS FOR THE GOOD ATTENDANCE - there should be an implementation of a
scheme in which the NHS hospital will reward the employees who have good record of
attendance which is a great way to give them a additional incentive for attending the work.
But the reward system should not penalize the employees who have an excused absence
(Ali, and Nageeb, 2020).
 ADDRESS THE UNSANCTIONED ABSENCES IMMEDIATELY - NHS should deal
with the absenteeism according to their attendance policy and be consistent with it.
Addressing the unscheduled absences is not only about dishing out the sanctions. The
seniors should listen out their reasons and support them if they can.
 IMPROVMENT IN THE WORK ENVIRONMENT – the absenteeism is also

somewhere related to the work environment. If the work environment is stressful or
unhealthy. Then the NHS should figure out some ways in which they can improve the
environment of the workplace. For example by organising creative activities , wellness
programs etc.
 FLEXIBLE WORKING – one of the best idea to make employees of NHS attached with
the organisations is to introduce flexible working hours and remote work as well. Some of
the companies also offer unlimited vacation days.
RECOMMENDATION
The two of the best solutions to reduce the absenteeism is improvement in the work
environment and flexible working, as they will make employees truly committed to their work and
reduce the absenteeism (Soergel, 2018).
TASK 2
a plan to implement the decision you’ve made to solve the complex problem
 OUTLINE THE GOALS – NHS should start identify and set the goals of the
implementation plan. What they want to achieve, why is it important for the company. As
the complex problem is the shortage of the workforce then they should identify how they
can overcome this.
 ASSIGN THE RESPONSIBILITIES- NHS should assign the clear and limited duties and
responsibilities to the workforce. They should stop overburdening the workforce and help
and supervise them to do better work. This will help in overcoming the shortage of the
workforce (Hollingsworth, and et. Al, 2021).
 IMPLEMENTATION SHEDULE - a proper schedule helps in keeping up the track,
communicating with the workers, and in regularly checking up on the process of the specific
task. If the work is properly scheduled then it will help the worker in coordinating properly.
 RESOURCES ALLOCATION–one of the major goal of the implementation plan is to
ensure that the team has access to the resources to accomplish the task effectively and
efficiently. This will help the workforce in completing the task with ease and they will not
feel inferior which will result into truly committed workforce.
 DEFINE METRICS –this should be used by NHS to determine the success of the project.
The implementation plan should identify the key performance indicators which will measure
the success and failure of the organisation and workers as well. This will help them in

motivating them to better rather then quitting.
success indicators to measure the effectiveness of your decision.
DECISION QUALITY - Measuring the quality of available alternatives and information, as well
as engagement and timing of the decision. A decision often fails because of the latter, the matter is
simply decided after the deadline has expired.
SITUATION ANALYSIS - Some examples of a situation analysis are whether the decision
involves organizational and analytical complexity. Any situation that has occurred and may occur in
the near future should be adequately analysed (Mohanty, 2021).
RESULTS - Both hard and soft values are measured in this section. Assess the impact, urgency, or
relevance of the decision on the one hand, and the mood or dialogue among participants on the
other. Taking the time to do this and getting data on overall results in different areas over time is
extremely valuable to improve as a decision maker.
RISK ASSESSMENT - It is clear that a thorough risk assessment is crucial, but it actually goes
beyond investment decisions. It's always a good idea to assess the likelihood and severity of failure
of any particular decision and do the appropriate scenario planning to avoid the worst case.
EVALUATION OF EFFORTS VS. RESULTS - A simple matrix emerges in terms of efforts to
evaluate the success of a decision. To make this decision, simply ask team members to place a post
with their name on a flipchart with outcome (low-high) and effort (low-high) axes. The preferred
outcome is low effort with high return. This gives you a good overview of the team's performance
(Ahn, and et. Al, 2022).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the Problem solving is basically the
process of identifying, analysing, finding alternatives for a particular problem occurred in the
company. NHS hospitals are presently facing the problem of shortage of workforce. If there will be
fewer workforces in the NHS hospitals the working employees will get overburdened by the work.
If the NHS hospital is running out of the workforce then it will affect their image as their work will
get delayed due to fewer workforces. the major causes of this problem is nurse burnout, career,
family, ageing workforce etc.The two of the best solutions to reduce the absenteeism is
improvement in the work environment and flexible working.

REFERENCES
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