Leadership and Organizational Smart Goals “Every nurse has the opportunity to make a positive impact on the profession through day-to-day advocacy for nurses and the nursing profession” (Tomajan, 2012, abstract). Nurses have the power to make a difference in their work organization by making positive changes. Changing the staffing matrix to staffing based on acuity and reducing the unit department’s acquired pressure ulcers will greatly contribute to patient safety and patient/nurse satisfaction.
Goal 1: Leadership Development A major problem of the health care system today is the heavy workload of the hospital nurses. Nurses are experiencing job dissatisfaction and burnout due to three main reasons: increased patient acuity, inadequate nursing staff, and higher workload. Staffing by patient acuity is safer for patients. It decreases the heavy patient workload and eliminate overtime. It will also increase the nurse’s job satisfaction and create better patient outcome. The article “Safe Staffing Saves Lives” mentions, “insufficient nurse staffing has been linked with poor patient outcomes, longer hospital stays and increased risk of patient mortality” (2011, p. 16, para. 2). The article summarized how the American Nurses Association (ANA) introduced the formal legislation that required “hospitals that participate in Medicare to form committees that compromised of at least 55% direct care nurses” (“Safe Staffing Saves Lives,” 2011, p. 16, para. 2). Now the ANA has proposed a guideline to solve the nurse-staffing crisis. The ANA’s guideline requires hospitals to set nurse staffing based on five changing condition: patient acuity, patient numbers, nurse skills and experience, support staff, and technology. The guideline promotes staffing by patient acuity, which leads to staffing flexibility and safer nursing working condition. If the proposed guideline passes