Nursing As A Change Agent Essay

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Innovation is about change. In today’s rapid changing healthcare environment, nurses are constantly expected to be adapting to a variety of incremental changes in the way they work. This has led to the consideration of integrating innovation into practice as a way to improve performance.
For instance, an epidemic outbreak of 8098 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during the period of November 2002 to July 2003, were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from 29 countries, with 774 SARS related deaths being reported (CDC, 2013). Studies have shown that aerosol generating procedure like nebulisation was associated with a higher potential risk of transmission. As such, several infection control measures were implemented following …show more content…

In this article, the Director of Nursing is the change agent. The responsibilities of the change agent would involve the acquirement of new knowledge, aiding, developing and motivating staff, handling of problems and making sure of a favourable environment. (Gilley et al, 2001). Furthermore, being reasonable, attentive, having farsightedness and good team-building skills are personal qualities and characteristics required of a change agent (Johnson and Scholes, …show more content…

They have to understand and see the purpose of change with realistic and flexible means to achieve it. Change agents displayed effective leadership and interpersonal skills, and offers support and encouragement to the staffs. Furthermore, they tend to possess power that is an essential quality in change agent. Expert power is a necessary ingredient in the transformation process that a change agent should possess. These leaders tend to have a positive impact on the staffs and are believed to understand the problem more

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