Nursing and Healthcare Leadership: Root Cause Analysis and Delegation Activities

Running head: NURSING AND HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP
NURSING AND HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP
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1NURSING AND HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP
Assignment 1
The root cause analysis team comprises of a risk manager, the nurse and the
pharmaceutical head. The nurse can contribute knowledge about institutional medication policies
of the hospital and patient treatment details (Hayes et al., 2016). The pharmaceutical head can
contribute knowledge about storage, availability, composition and mechanism of action of each
drug (Wang et al., 2015). The risk manager can contribute knowledge about patient health risks
of incorrect medication administration along with rapid mitigation in case of error repetition
(Nanji et al., 2016).
A team collaboration approach was adopted which includes clarified communication,
establishment of trust, specification of roles, balancing of activities and working towards a
common goal fulfillment of the organization (Weaver, Dy & Rosen, 2014). In this case, evidence
of collaboration and avoidance of blaming can be observed in the preparation of a process flow
chart along with the creation of a root cause analysis team.
The two processes which were not contributing to problem solution included usage of
nursing online documentation and computerized physician order entry. This is due to the fact that
electronic health records are often met with considerable shortcomings such as reduced patient
interaction, clinical oversight, difficult computer interface, lack of experiences, burnout and
typing errors along with lack of consideration of individual patient needs. These factors often
lead to medication errors (Schiff et al., 2015).
One of the performance improvement charts presented in this case is a Pareto Chart. A
Pareto Chart has been identified as one of the best evaluation methods for the management of

2NURSING AND HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP
organizational quality. Hence, usage of this chart will prove beneficial, since it will clearly
highlight the factor which is contributing most towards medical errors along with mentioning
additional common causes of defects (Antony et al., 2018).
One of the key contributing factors to electronic health records such as NDMR and
CPOE. Often employees face difficulties in understanding their usage resulting in higher
incidence of errors. Such records also reduce patient interaction and need identification by the
medical staff due to requirement of continuous updating information (Page, Baysari &
Westbrook, 2017). Another contributing factor is the reduced availability of staff in the nursing
and pharmaceutical departments, which often makes it difficult to manage required duties due to
prevalence of excessive work load and lack of adequate experience and knowledge (Hammoudi,
Ismaile & Abu Yahya, 2018).
Assignment 2
Scenario 1
For the purpose of preventing further admission of patients to the emergency
departments, there is a need to consider a number of causative factors which require extensive
delegation activities by a nurse leader. Considering the dynamic and changing organizational
roles encountered in present day healthcare settings, there is a need for nurses to adopt duties
beyond the mere treatment of patient somatic symptoms. Hence, undertaking effective leadership
and delegation activities is of utmost importance of present day nurses which will not only lead
to the reduction of occurrence of avoidable situations, but also in the improved fulfillment of
tasks and improved treatment provision to the patients (Suh, Yee & Kim, 2017). For this case
study, usage of a transformational nursing leadership style would be appropriate.