Nursing turnover has negative effects on patient care, staff morale, and operating efficiency. Healthcare companies consider it a costly and non-beneficial activity. This essay will explore the link between nurse turnover, leadership styles, and organizational structures. This paper focuses on analyzing the relationship between organizational structures and the factors that cause employee turnover, including poor communication, mistrust, ineffective teamwork, and workplace disrespect. It intends to assess their effectiveness in reducing nurse turnover, provide healthcare managers with insights on dealing with such challenges, and envision an ideal organizational structure for nurses to stay in the profession.
My Organizational Structure
My healthcare company uses the matrix organizational structure quite frequently. This structure combines components of both a divisional and functional structure, allowing an adaptable and receptive approach to managing complex healthcare services. Divisions within the departments may focus on unique patient groups or areas, such as pediatrics, cardiology, and neurology. Such divisions can also be separated into nursing, administrative, and clinical service. For instance, the nursing department is a product-based structure where the head of nursing is responsible for each specialized patient care unit.
The matrix organization structure, which is professional teamwork-based, supports this kind of organizational leadership approach. Leaders encourage an interdisciplinary strategy where all health workers cooperate within the scope of the division as well as cross-divisional lines and across their roles of practice. For instance, to make sure that the patient is cared for comprehensively, nurses in the neurology department should work closely with neurologists, physiotherapists, and social workers. This organizational structure enhances the quality of patient care by fostering specialist exchange within departments and promoting flexible decision-making.
However, this complexity may also lead to problems in making decisions and clarity in duties. Despite promoting the team’s work, the matrix form may easily confuse the decision-making power and the reporting lines. This alignment is accompanied by a good leader who has established his channels of communication in order to deal efficiently with disputes or misunderstandings. Techniques of leadership point to empowering teams to clarify roles and maintain clear communication channels for decision-making. The organizational structure of the company is based on the cooperative capability and the focus on cooperation that are inherent in the matrix organization structure so that one can apply the targeted patient care and allow for multidisciplinary teamwork.
Nursing Turnover
The matrix organization of my healthcare workplace fosters multidisciplinary collaboration and conforms to efforts taken to decrease nurse attrition. The structure deals with issues such as poor communication and inefficient teamwork and creates a feeling of belonging and communal responsibility towards nurses (Brukwe, 2022). The departments dealing with particular patient profiles will allow nurses to carve out a niche in which they feel valued. It helps bring down workplace disrespect, thus encouraging trust among staff. The management technique in this structure greatly stresses empowerment and open communication that create an enjoyable working environment, hence improving job satisfaction and employee retention.
One reason for staff turnover in the workplace is a lack of recognition and appreciation. Nurses do tough jobs, and they get little recognition for their efforts. Lack of appreciation can cause nurses to feel that they deserve, leading to poor retention (Marufu et al., 2021). To solve this problem, healthcare executives should implement continuous recognition processes with prize-giving and praising nurses’ successes. An appreciation culture will boost nurse job satisfaction, lift nursing morale, and reduce turnover among practitioners.
As a healthcare leader, I recommend setting up a planned recognition program and a mechanism through which an individual’s achievements are acknowledged. Creating an appreciative culture for nurses that makes them feel appreciated is very important because it builds the morale of nurses’ teamwork and attachment to an organization (Cottrell et al., 2023). I also recommend designing a comprehensive competency-based nursing staff education initiative geared towards their requirements. This could include introducing mentorship programs, providing entry into nursing conferences and seminars, and creating career opportunities. Recognition and crediting of a nurse on performance will improve employee satisfaction, thereby lowering the rate of workers quitting their jobs and creating an enabling environment conducive for employees to work hard due to recognition and rewards.
My Preference
I prefer a flat organization because of its excellent means of communication and heavy emphasis on autonomy. In a flat organizational structure, hierarchies are minimized, making it easy for a prompt decision-making process (Jerab & Mabrouk, 2023). It leads to employee empowerment, which helps to address problems quickly and gives motivation for teamwork. Furthermore, many stages of administration also lead to a favorable administrative environment that encourages creativity and character contributions to be recognized. Workplaces that are adaptive and offer an option for a quicker solution while taking ownership by employees.
Conclusion
Nurse turnover is highly affected by the organizational structure in health environments. Lowering turnover is well-matched with the collaborative focus of the matrix structure, which breaks down communication barriers and encourages multidisciplinary teams. On the other hand, nursing needs are continuous and, therefore, require constant growth in expertise. Growing broad-based development programs should always top the agenda of healthcare executives to enhance nurses’ skills and, hence, professional advancement. It is important to align the institution’s frameworks with custom-designed approaches for enhancing professional growth among nurses so as to reduce turnover and promote a healthy healthcare workforce.
References
Brukwe, A. (2022). Factors to be considered in the adoption of the matrix management organization structure within a state-owned enterprise. Open.uct.ac.za. https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/36579
Cottrell, C., Adlesic, M., & Albert, N. (2023). Factors associated with retention of nurse assistants in a hospital setting. Nursing Management, 54(4), 38–44. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.numa.0000921900.52255.60
Jerab, D. A., & Mabrouk, T. (2023, September 26). The Evolving Landscape of Organizational Structures: A Contemporary Analysis. Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4584643
Marufu, T. C., Collins, A., Vargas, L., Gillespie, L., & Almghairbi, D. (2021). Factors Influencing Retention among Hospital Nurses: Systematic Review. British Journal of Nursing, 30(5), 302–308. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.302
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