Service Improvement Proposal: Communication in Elderly Care Home

This report presents a service improvement proposal for a care home, addressing issues related to communication among care workers, particularly during shift rotations. The student identifies problems such as poor note-taking, lack of unit manager availability during night shifts, and inadequate communication between staff. The report includes reflections, problem analysis, and an exploration of existing care delivery methods. It utilizes SWOT and PESTEL analyses to assess the situation and proposes solutions based on leadership and management theories. The student suggests improvements such as staff training in communication, regular supervision sessions, and enhanced note-writing practices. The report also features a critical path analysis and a Gantt chart for implementation, along with suggestions for evaluation through questionnaires, ultimately aiming to improve the quality of care and the working environment within the care home. The student also gives recommendations to overcome the issues.

0
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
Leadership and Change for Service
Case Study: ‘Care Home for Elderly People’
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
My Reflection on the Projects Problems or Issues......................................................................2
Explanation of the Key Problems....................................................................................................3
Existing Ways of Care Delivery..................................................................................................5
Problem Solving Attempts...........................................................................................................5
Critical Analysis of Required Changes............................................................................................6
Analysis of Problems or Issues....................................................................................................7
Leadership and Management Theory..........................................................................................8
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................9
PESTEL Analysis......................................................................................................................11
Proposal for Implementation and Evaluation................................................................................12
Implementation..........................................................................................................................12
Gantt chart.............................................................................................................................12
Evaluation..................................................................................................................................15
Questionnaires.......................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17
Appendix........................................................................................................................................20

2
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
Introduction
Health care industry is one of the most beneficial sector for the community as the rate of
the health care needs to be enhanced in manner to keep the society healthy and assuring that
every individual of the community is getting proper benefits. Every individual of the society has
the right to be healthy and avail all the medical or healthcare facilities those are necessary for
their well - being. Health Care for Elderly Home is one of the attempts of the government or
private organization to contribute in the well - being of elder people and make sure that they
have been provided at the same place as that of other age groups. It is identified that there are
many health care for elder people in UK however; most of them are not capable of providing the
highest standard of the services to the elder people. This report will demonstrate the respective
problems those are leading to the inefficient management and service delivery within this sector.
My Reflection on the Projects Problems or Issues
I identified that this topic is vital in manner to respect the elder people and make sure that
the generation that paved this life for us avails all the services those they deserve. The most
concerning sectors those could be considered as the most influencing factors for this sector
include the following issues:
1. Bad report writing is one of the issues related to problems associated while employees
changes their shift at the night
2. Unavailability of the unit manager during night shift
3. Lack of communication among the staffs during shift change or between different shifts
4. Lack in number of staffs during night shift

3
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
The research will be driven considering the problems being faced in the healthcare for
elder people during the shift changes and make sure that we reaches at the conclusion that will be
capable of eliminating the identified issues and providing efficient strategies. This report will
present a critical analysis on the same topic and assure that the elder people at the health care
will be having proper place in the society and avail the services those are their right.
Explanation of the Key Problems
The elder people always need proper care as their nature is sensitive and nurses should
take care of their well - being and living in manner to assure that the health care services being
provided to them is of high standard. These problems are capable of influencing the efficiencies
of the health care and being an obstacle in providing better services to the elder people (Cameron
and Green 2015). During the shift changing, the staffs and employees does not communicate
efficiently and that lead to certain problems and causing disturbance in the management and
hence, the services being delivered to them. Following are the three major problem sections
those are the vital obstacles in allowing the healthcare to care for the elder people:
1. Bad report writing: Elder care home needs to take care of the elder people for 24 * 7
hours and hence, the report of the improvement and ongoing medical care is necessary to
be more effective and efficient. This is the only way that the employees coming in the
next phase is capable of providing better care to them and assuring that the current
development will be manipulated as per the ongoing healthcare (Kendrick 2015). This is
one of the lagging factors that can ultimately lead to the improper and ineffective caring
for the elder people and hence, it is an obvious factor that the report presentation should

4
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
contain vital information related to the ongoing medical and patient care and allowing the
next employees to manage the care accordingly.
2. Unavailability of the unit manager during night shift: It can be observed that during the
shift change, the staffs do not accomplish their sector of in an efficient and effective
manner and that can be a trouble in delivering better services (Doppelt 2017). Despite of
these factors, there is not any manager to manage them and assign those proper roles and
responsibilities those could lead to accomplishment of their individual sector of work.
3. Lack of communication among the staffs during shift change or between different shifts:
Communication is the greatest way of assuring that the elder people are being taken care
for good and thus, assuring that every member in the ‘health care for elder people’ are
being treated in effective way. The first mentioned problem is related to the report and it
is a medium of communication between the staffs however; the entire system lacks in
communication and thus, managing the entire environment can be difficult for the
management. Communication offers the employees to understand each other’s situation
and make them understand their perspective and progress accordingly within the same
environment (Hilson and Murray 2017). It is necessary for proper health care that every
employee has the better relation with each other in manner to manage and execute the
operations if anyone of them is unavailable while doing their jobs.
4. Lack in number of staffs during night shift: Most of the organization does not care about
the elder people or patients during night shift and that could lead to several issues for the
patients or elders who are in need during that shift (Hayes 2018). Availability of the
nurses during night shift is of same importance than that the need of day shift as the elder
people need care for 24*7.

5
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
Existing Ways of Care Delivery
The existing ways of patient care focuses on the availability of the resources rather than
focusing on the better management of the available and allocated resources. The stated problems
are more or less exist in all the ‘health care for elder’, as focus is being provided to the resources
not on their management in an efficient and effective manner (Thomas 2015). The management
of the resources can be defined as the effective and efficient application of the available
resources and keep them available throughout the ongoing operational activity (Kerzner aand
Kerzner 2017). Patient care is one of the sensitive sector within the health cares and management
is one of the crucial factor for assuring that the cares function in effective and efficient manner.
Problem Solving Attempts
The primary focus should be made on the management of the resources those are
available and introducing or collaborating the new resources those are helpful in assuring that the
requirements of the healthcare are being successfully fulfilled and the elder people are
effectively being served by the nurses. There should be a template available for documenting the
reports and assuring that the nurse record the proper and accurate data related to the development
of elder people care (Kerzner 2017). The attempt can be driven through introducing a special unit
manager for managing the resources during night shift and allocating proper job responses for
them and assuring that every sector has certain qualified human resource.

6
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
Critical Analysis of Required Changes
Figure 1: Critical path analysis
(Source: Created by Author)

7
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
The activities those are necessary for the delivery of this project has been demonstrated in
the above picture including the relation between the early start and early finish, and late start and
late finish. The activities other than blue are the vital and critical activities those need to
accomplish within the expected timeline and budget with an assurance that the further activities
can be manipulated, if the determined project needs to be implemented in an efficient and
effective manner (Kerzner 2018). The relationship between the activities has been represented in
the form of the arrows and all the activities those are not capable of influencing the entire project
has been represented in the above figure. In manner to accomplish the problem solving for the
employees communication in the healthcare for elder people can be taken care, if the above
mentioned activities is accomplished in an efficient manner (Verzuh 2015). The timeline of the
critical activities should not be altered in manner to develop the sophisticated model within the
allocated deadline.
Analysis of Problems or Issues
The problems stated above have been already raised as a concern for many of the writers
and they show their interest in many of their research papers and articles. Ginter, Duncan and
Swayne (2018) stated that shift changing within the health care should be managed in an
efficient and effective manner and it plays very vital role in executing the system for developing
the necessary output and production. Shift change lead towards many crucial issues those need
proper consideration while leading towards a sophisticated model of care for the health care for
elder people. Northouse (2018) claimed that proper and effective integration of the leadership
and management is one of the best appropriate solution for the health care to provide best
services to their patients. Since most of the health care has less number of employees, the

8
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
strength does not allow to take care of the elder people with same efficiency as that is done
during the morning shift.
Leadership and Management Theory
Better and relevant leadership allows the team members or the group of the employees
focuses on the same strategy and delivers the necessary objectives of the entire project or
operational activities. Busse, Aboneh and Tefera (2014) states that leadership is a trait in which
an individual motivate or manipulates the individual towards the strategy and path set by the
leader and make them to move on the same track that lead the organization towards the success
and better outputs. Shift change needs proper and effective management strategies those can
bound the employees to be more conscious and attentive towards accomplishing their sector of
work. Drucker (2017) expressed that role of a team plays very crucial role for ant organization in
manner to manage their respective consumers or customers. Similar condition can related to the
health care of the elder people and the entire team should contribute in the proper and effective
care for them and assuring that best care is being provided to them. Management of the
employees while shift change requires proper and effective balance in between the employees
and the patients, that can only be accomplished, if the individual assigned as the leader has the
ability of proper management (Stanphone and Lancaster 2015). Communication has been
claimed as one of the vital lagging factors in the above report and it is an obvious factor that the
effective leadership and management strategies will have certain plans for communication and
thus, every employee would be allowed to communicate in an effective and efficient manner.
There are certain policies developed and imposed by the healthcare those have been
always executed through taking the initials of the individuals over the developed policies. These
policies provide the health cares with loop holes in manner to cope up with certain legal issues

9
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
however; these are the only strategies those assure that the developed system is capable of
providing all the necessary benefits those have been promised while patients are introduced to
the health care. The above mentioned issues are directly capable of dis-balancing the service and
products to the consumers in an efficient and effective manner and hence, these problems need to
be eliminated to the extent level (D’Andreamatteo et al. 2015). The community does care about
the elder people and it is the need for the community to be better through better caring of the
elder persons and providing them better and enhanced service those are their right. Elder people
are the part of the community and hence, they should be treated as an important factor because
they had already made the contribution in the development of the society in which the present
generation is living. Their knowledge and experience can be utilized for the implementation of
the strategies those are the best option for the present development and hence, they should
always be a greater concern for the delivery of the better community or society. Leadership and
management strategies could assure the efficient and effective care of the elder people within the
health care (Borkowski 2015). The shift change issues and problems mentioned above can be
solved through the effective and efficient leadership and management strategies for the
employees working in the health care.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Proper report documentation will be helpful
for the employees from next shift to better
understand the current growth and medication
of the elder people.
Enrollment or recruitment of a unit manager
Weakness
It will no doubt increase the budget or cost of
the health care than it was estimated before
Increase in number of staff could lead to
ineffective management of their roles and
responsibilities within the entire health care

10
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
to manage the operational activities within the
health care for elder people as it will be
helpful in assuring that the shift changing and
roles of the employees are same as that of the
applied roles and responsibilities in the
system (Marmor 2017).
Communication strategies should must be
enhanced or manipulated in manner to make
sure that every employee is having a better
relation with other employee and the activities
are being delivered in an efficient and
effective manner.
Increasing the number of staffs can be a better
approach in assuring that the elder people are
having proper and effective care and best look
after.
system.
Opportunities
It can enhance the number of elder people
agree for availing the services being
introduced by the health cares (Scott et al.
2018).
It can provide option for the elder people to
have a society where they can have the
Threats
This could lead to rebel among the other
employees and they could stand against the
implementation of these strategies (Dees
2017).

11
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE FOR SERVICE
community of people with same age and
thinking and avail their rights.
PESTEL Analysis
Political: The UK government has always supported the health care for elder people and
hence, the implementation of the strategies those could possibly enhance the care for the elder
people will be smoothly imposed within the existing systems of the health care. The proposed
modifications will allow the employees to be more serious about their jobs under proper and
effective leadership and management and thus, accomplish the operational activities.
Economic: The enhancement in the health care will no doubt make feel the elder people
that they are the part of the community and the society could utilize their knowledge and
experience for future (Cooke and Bartram 2015). The employees will contribute in the
enhancement of the community.
Social: The proposed modifications will be beneficial for the society as the elder people
will be provided with better care and certain position will be provided to them.
Technological: Proper management and leadership can only be accomplished through the
application of latest project management tools and techniques and thus, incorporation of
technologies will alternatively result in better and effective communication among the
employees and the executives (Ignatavicius and Wokman 2015).
Environmental: The current situation has certain ethical issues for both the elder people
and the management managing the existing system and care for the elder people. There is always
certain ethical issue associated with every course of action however, proper consideration every