Manager’s Checklist The nurse manager is responsible for:
● Communicating openly and honestly with employees who oppose change.
● Understanding resistance to change. ● Maintaining support and confidence in staff even if
they are resistive to change. ● Emphasizing the positive outcomes from initiating
change. ● Finding solutions to problems that are obstacles to
change.
CASE STUDY 5-1
CHAPTER 5 • INITIATING AND MANAGING CHANGE 67
If you don’t like the current situation, you may look forward to change. As Midwestern- ers are fond of saying when asked about the weather: “If you don’t like it today, just wait until tomorrow. It will change.”
What You Know Now • In today’s health care system, change is inevitable, necessary, and constant. • With changes proposed for the nursing profession, nurses are in a pivotal position to initiate and
participate in change. • For change to be positive for nurses, they must develop change agent skills. • Critical evaluation of change theories provides guidance and direction for initiating and managing change. • The change process is similar to the nursing process and includes assessment, planning, implementation,
and evaluation. • Resistance to change is to be expected, and it can be a stimulant as well as a force to be overcome. • The nurse may be involved in change by initiating it or participating in implementing change. • Handling constant change is a challenge in today’s health care environment.
Tools for Initiating and Managing Change 1. Communicate openly and honestly with employees who oppose change. 2. Maintain support and confidence in staff even if they are resistive to change. 3. Emphasize the positive outcomes from the change. 4. Find solutions to problems that are obstacles to change. 5. Accept the constancy of change.
Questions to Challenge You 1. Identify a needed change in the organization where you practice. Using the change process, outline
the steps you would take to initiate change. 2. Consider your school or college. What change do you think is needed? Explain how you would
change it to become a better place for learning. 3. Have you had an experience with change occurring in your organization? What was your initial
reaction? Did that change? How well did the change process work? Was the change successful? 4. Do you have a behavior you would like to change? Using the steps in the change process, describe
how you might effect that change. 5. How do you normally react to change? Choose from the following: a. I love new ideas, and I’m ready to try new things. b. I like to know that something will work out before I try it. c. I try to avoid change as much as possible. 6. Did your response to the above question alter how you would like to view change? Think about this
the next time change is presented to you. 7. Think back to your first time on a clinical unit. How did you feel? Overwhelmed? Afraid of failing?
That’s the feeling that people have when facing change. Try to remember how you felt when you encounter resistance to change.