Employee Satisfaction in Health Management
This paper will be focusing on health management with the objective of ensuring proper health care provided to patients to ensure their satisfaction. There are various aspects of health management such as committing to excellence, measuring the crucial things, building a culture around service delivery, creating and enhancing leaders, employee’s satisfaction, developing individual accountability, and aligning behaviors with goals and values of an institution. The paper will focus on one aspect which is the employee satisfaction. This element is vital in health management since it is from the employees being satisfied that results to better healthcare provision and the ultimate fulfillment of the patients. Moreover, it will emphasize on what employees seek from their leaders to ensure better service delivery. The paper will look into the issue of rounding for outcomes in the process of securing the satisfaction of both the employees and the patients.
First, the principle of committing to excellence is where the health workers feel treasured and the patients are provided with the best health care thus achieving satisfaction for both (Wong and Giollonardo, 2013). Secondly, they suggested that the principle of measuring the important things is where leaders look into the facts in the work place critically and then making the best adjustment to improve service delivery. Thirdly, Wong and Giollonardo implied that the managers should build a culture around service where they ensure that they focus in bettering health care provision by the health practitioners. In addition, they recommended that leaders should always have the intent of empowering the workers so that they can also be leaders in the future. As well, they stated that the health leaders should create a culture of individual accountability so as to promote a sense of ownership and inspiration among the employees.
Employee satisfaction is one of the critical aspects of health management in making sure that the primary objective of providing the best and satisfying health care to the patients is achieved (McSherry, Pearce, Grimwood, and McSherry, 2012). To them, it is vital for health administrators to ensure that every employee is satisfied in the workplace for this guarantees better healthcare provision. Employees should be provided with the right conditions to have confidence in their organization. Healthcare facilities should aim at service delivery to the patients and motivate workers because they are valued at the organization. By doing this, the employees dedicate all their efforts to providing better service delivery (Wong and Laschinger, 2013). Wong and Laschinger affirmed that an employee understanding the purpose of the institution enables them to be focused towards achieving the goals of the healthcare facility.
Wong and Laschinger (2013) explained that employees want to be made aware of services they offer are valuable to guarantee patient satisfaction. Health managers always appreciate the efforts that the employees put in their service delivery, so as to motivate them towards working hard and achieving the overall goal of better healthcare provision (Bello, 2012). Bello suggested that as long as the workers are responsible and professional in their work, they should always be given the freedom without being micromanaged. In so doing, the nurses become responsible, hence bettering their services which eventually leads the provision of high quality services to the patient satisfaction, which is the major goal of most health institution.
McSherry, Pearce, Grimwood, and McSherry (2012) acknowledged that there are various things that employees look for in their managers in the process of being satisfied with what they do. First, they implied that employees are always expecting their leaders to work side by side with them. Having the backing of their managers lead to their satisfaction since they are confident that they are doing the right things in the work place. The confidence translates to patients’ satisfaction since they are provided with the best healthcare (Atefi, Abdullah, Wong, and Mazlom, 2014). Secondly, they stated that for employees to be gratified while doing their duties, it is essential for the managers to provide them with the necessary training that will enable them to deliver their services efficiently and meet the patients’ requirements.
Thirdly, the employees expect that the leaders should provide them with efficient systems and tools to do their job well. By doing this, the staff are satisfied and comfortable with their work as they can utilize their knowledge well when provided with the necessary resources (Brunetto, Teo, Shacklock, and Farr-Wharton, 2012). They implied that the patients are always satisfied with the services given to them because the systems are efficient in providing the best healthcare. Furthermore, Bello (2012) argued that workers expect their leaders to be approachable and to always appreciate their efforts so that they can be content in the work environment. This makes it easier for the workforce to discuss issues that may be affecting their service delivery and thus the leaders can address the issue at hand and work towards ensuring that the employees are satisfied.
In order for managers to foster employee-patient satisfaction, they should be able to follow up and have an understanding of the challenges which the nurses face while at work. After that, they should come up with new strategies, which will be responsible for allowing the nurses to work at ease, hence providing the best services to the patients (Morton, Brekhus, Reynolds, and Dykes, 2014). To the employees, leaders must always inquire if the employees have the required equipment to carry out their duties. Having the right equipment not only enhances service delivery but also customer satisfaction. In addition, they need to come up with problem solving solutions, which would be necessary for advocating for and dealing with any challenges which the nurses might face while at work. Furthermore, in order for te health institution to become a magnet institution, managers need also motivate, encourage and reward the nurses for their work. Asking question, in areas where nurses may not be conversant with is also a good way of enabling the nurses to focus and work hard hence being able to avoid any obstacles which may come their way. This consequently improves the relationship between the employees and their leaders, making them to feel at ease while working, and to also feel appreciated. Also, it allows the nurses to feel free and to also enjoy doing their work, which leads to patient satisfaction and reduced mortality rates in the health institution, due to the quality of services which is responsible for enabling patients to live longer.
Finally, health management is a significant factor in improving and ensuring the quality of services offered by a healthcare institution. In order for the employees to offer their best services, different forms of motivating them must be included of used by the healthcare managers, thus allowing them to do their work happily (Morton, Brekhus, Reynolds, and Dykes, 2014). Nurses and other health workers require a peace of mind, in order to work at ease, hence it is necessary for the managers to maintain a close working relationship with them. Additional, the working staff at the healthcare institution should be free with their leaders, thus allowing them to easily ask questions and to also come up with new ideas and recommendations concerning different issues. Likewise, the working staff should also be provided with the necessary resources which they require, in order to do their work well. Motivation, encouragement, and being concerned with the general performance of the institution should be the main objective of the healthcare managers, thus leading to the provision of high quality services to the patients.
Appendix
Questionnaire
I prepared a written questionnaire which I administered to Jane Smith who is the volunteer coordinator at Kaiser Permanente. She answered it through a written form and was able to obtain the following information from her answers.
1. What do you really love about your job?
The thing that I really love about my job is having to work with fresh talents after every six months given that the volunteering period is limited to only six months and giving others space for them to volunteer as well. Moreover, I love it that I am tasked to recruiting the volunteers and that enables me to create a good relationship with them as earlier as possible.
2. What part of your responsibilities keeps you up at night?
Sometimes I stay up late into the night especially when there is a new team of volunteers since I have to make sure that they adapt to the organization as fast as possible. Given that the organization operates even at night, I have to be there to oversee their earlier stages of adapting to the organization. Moreover, during the recruiting period, I have to stay awake even at night while scrutinizing the paperwork of the volunteers.
3. If you would change one thing about your job, what would it be?
I love my job and would not wish for many changes to be made. I would only seek a chance for the number of volunteers to be raised to around ten from the current five given that their service delivery is always appreciated by the customers.
4. What makes your job worthwhile, meaningful, and purposeful?
I find my job valuable given that I always act as an inspiration to the volunteers and they always appreciate the role I play in making them better. Moreover, my work is very meaningful since the organization always recommends the work I do in recruiting and mentoring volunteers. Also, it is purposeful since I ensure that I have the best team that is excellent in their service delivery.
5. Describe your hiring approach for volunteers. How and where do you find talented applicants?
My main approach when hiring volunteers is always conducting interviews which helps me to gauge the applicants well based on how they express themselves and how passionate they are about volunteering. It is how they express themselves and what is in their curriculum vitae that enable me to identify the best talents among the applicants.
6. In your experience, what is the most efficient way to resolve employee and upper-level management conflicts?
Based on my experience, the most effective way to solve conflicts between the employee and the upper-level management is to ensure that there is constant communication between them and each of them is aware of their responsibilities.
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