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Introduction
The labor and delivery setting is an always evolving and dynamic part of the healthcare system. The particular importance of high-quality assistance comes from childbirth being an essential process in the lives of individuals around the world. The goal of nursing in the United States is to provide quality assistance by ensuring patient safety, confidentiality, dignity, and respect. However, every part of the healthcare system can be improved by using an appropriate, detailed analysis of the possible weaknesses. Thus, a well-developed strategic plan incorporates the analysis and dream stages of an appreciative inquiry (AI), and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of the labor and delivery setting.
Appreciative Inquiry Discovery and Dream
Within the labor and delivery setting, most of the patients stories tend to be positive. In my experience, it always becomes more comfortable and easy for a woman to give birth if, from the very moment when she arrives at the hospital, nurses approach the process cautiously. The carefulness of the medical staff is a significant factor influencing the overall positive experience of giving birth. Different women may have various contraceptive sensations; pain defects or fetal size.
Careful interaction contributes to the International Patient Safety Goals number two and four. These goals stand for effective communication and the assurance of safe surgery ( International Patient Safety Goals , 2020). Therefore, the individual approach to mothers through effective communication is more likely to lead to safe operation. Studies suggest that ethical conduct and effective communication among all professionals involved in delivery care and women and their families are essential actions that contribute to the comprehensiveness of care (Silva et al., 2019, p.241). Overall, the stories of labor and delivery setting are favorable due to the improved individual nursing approach through effective communication techniques leading to safer operations.
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is being widely used for researching various organizations, institutions, and practices. According to the System Approach, institutions are entities that communicate with their settings and contain numerous subsystems (Gürel, 2017). Using the SWOT technique, an object operates in two ways, one internally and another externally. The internal factors include strengths and weaknesses, whereas the outside factors consist of opportunities and threats (Gürel, 2017). Thus, to conduct the SWOT analysis, it is vital to determine labor and delivery setting strengths.
As was mentioned previously, the most significant strength is described by the patients as the individual approach by the nursing staff. Moreover, the organizational weaknesses might be determined as possible understaffing, which leads to the lack of time each nurse spends with the patient. Furthermore, the opportunities of the setting are to incorporate more trained nursing staff as well as to improve the prevention of maternal mortality. Lastly, the possible external threats are the lack of interest of future nurses in the labor and delivery setting. The nursing assessment tool used for the SWOT analysis is patient history. The study identifies understaff and maternal mortality as the main areas of concern. The resolving of the threats and weaknesses is essential as they correspond with the primary settings values and mission. The settings want to ensure safety and maximum comfort to mothers in such a necessary period of their lives.
Comparison of Approaches
To get a full picture of the strategic plan, an addition to the SWOT analysis or the Appreciative Inquiry perspective is introduced. Compared to the SWOT approach, the AI explicitly focuses on the positive of each organization or spectrum analyzed (Maccoy, 2014). Meaning that the idea is through questioning and examining the patients, as well as the nursing staff, the approach is likely to lead to the increase of labor and delivery setting capacities and safety quality. After using both methods and comparing the outcomes, the use of AI is approaching the nursing system from a different angle than the SWOT. Since the former, while focusing on existing problems does not provide a broader way to define what is currently satisfactory and what needs to be improved in the long term (Maccoy, 2014). Some of the stages included in the AI the discovery and dream, where the goal is to focus on what is already working within the setting and think of ways to improve it.
The data that was used for the AI analysis differs from that of the SWOT, as the positive feedback was used as a primary source. Since deriving positive feedback from the staff and patients and improving it in the dream, the stage is the primary goal of the AI. Whereas, in the SWOT approach, besides focusing on the nursing setting feedback, the complaints of the patients and the statistics were taken into consideration, as the SWOT approach also takes into account the weaknesses and threats. While communicating about the dream and discovery phases of the AI with colleagues, people were inspired by the analysis to improve the labor and delivery setting. Whereas, some parts of the SWOT analysis were approached less positively, as they included criticism. The dream and discovery stages are similar to those of the strengths and opportunities. However, the approach to problem-solving in the SWOT presented the situation within the setting from a negative side. Overall, the AI approach was more uplifting and inspiring to the colleagues than the SWOT approach, even though the problems that were considered for both of the analyses were the same.
Analysis of Relevant Leadership Characteristics and Skills
Care settings workers need to improve leadership and communication skills to become more efficient members of healthcare. According to Grossman and Valiga (2012), leadership is essential to the nursing sector. Thus, some of the critical leadership skills nurses should have to inspire change are creativity, patient-centeredness, coordination, multiple priority management, problem-solving, critical thinking, and system navigation (Grossman & Valiga, 2012, p. 32). These skills are particularly helpful during the implementation of SWOT or AI projects. For the AI project, creativity and critical thinking are extremely valuable, as the task is to find a way to improve something that is already working within the setting. As the dream phase implies the necessity for the out-of-the-box thinking that aspires to see the long-term benefits of the project. Moreover, the SWOT analysis requires patient-centeredness, coordination, and multiple priority management. Since the SWOT analysis helps staff to see the setting from the perspective of patients and implies various takes on the environment, which requires coordination of problems while prioritizing multiple issues at a time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the labor and delivery setting is significant for the healthcare system, as it incorporates the beginning of the new life. Therefore, it is essential to improve the experiences of patients through the gradual improvement of nursing staff. Besides the overall positive feedback from the mothers, the partial lack of staff and possible maternal mortalities brings the need to design a well-researched strategic plan. The possible strategies to use while implementing the project are through the SWOT and AI techniques. The SWOT analysis includes searching for strengths and weaknesses, both internally and externally. Whereas AI is focusing on the improvement of the ongoing positive aspects of the setting through dream and design phases. Overall, the recent analysis was more welcomed by the colleagues; however, both the SWOT and AI may be successful within the nursing settings as they incorporate useful leadership skills.
References
Grossman, S., & Valiga, T. (2012). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of nursing (4th ed.). F.A. Davis Company.
Gürel, E. (2017). Swot analysis: A theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51), 9941006.
International Patient Safety Goals. (2020). Jointcommissioninternational.Org.
Maccoy, D. J. (2014). Appreciative inquiry and evaluation getting to what works. The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 29(2), 104. Web.
Silva, Thales Philipe Rodrigues da, Dumont-Pena, Érica, Sousa, Ana Maria Magalhães, Amorim, Torcata, Tavares, Luísa Castanheira, Nascimento, Débora Cabral di Pietra, Souza, Kleyde Ventura de, & Matozinhos, Fernanda Penido. (2019). Obstetric nursing in best practices of labor and delivery care. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 72(Suppl. 3), 235-242. Epub. 2019.
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