The impact of management of change projects on practice: a description of the contribution that one educational programme made to the quality of health care.
This paper is based on the authors' experience of teaching and supervising the first intake of the management unit of the diploma for charge nurses offered by the Department of Professional Development and Training, Glasgow College of Nursing and Midwifery, Glasgow, Scotland. The students on this course undertake a project comprising of a documented research-based action plan aimed at the achievement of a selected topic for change directly linked with their practice. All the students except one were G grade charge nurses from a wide variety of clinical backgrounds. This paper will briefly consider the work of Barriball et al. who suggest categories of outcomes of continuing professional education. This is contrasted with Scheller, who highlights three problems when attempting to measure the impact of continuing education on practice. Despite these problems, it is beneficial to attempt to consider the impact of continuing professional education on practice. The work of Francke et al. will be featured in which they ascertain the determinants of changes in nurses' behaviour after continuing professional education. The authors believe that the management of change project, undertaken by the students, enhances the possibility that knowledge gained from the management unit will impact on their practice. Two examples of students' projects will be used to support the paper. The first concerns changing to a 12-hour shift pattern in an intensive care setting and the second relates to the implementation of the named nurse system.
Allan
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Department of Nursing and Community Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland.
Cornes
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D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D015401:Nursing Administration Research / Q000193:education*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration; D009745:Nursing, Supervisory / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010559:Personnel Management; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration; D011321:Primary Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D011787:Quality of Health Care