Interview Summary During the interview, I spoke with a nurse named Sarah, who currently works at Kaiser Baldwin Park Medical Center (KBPMC). Sarah provided insights into the current labor dispute at the medical center (Peters & Gawehn, 2019). KBPMC is a hospital known for its dedication to patient care. Still, it has been facing challenges in maintaining efficiency and collaboration among different departments (Kaiser Permanente, 2023). As a registered nurse, Jane’s primary duties include patient care, taking patient history, educating patients, recording patients’ symptoms, monitoring patients’ health, and ensuring adherence to hospital protocols. She highlighted several issues within the organization, such as communication gaps between departments, a shortage of staff leading to an increased workload, and a need for adequate resource utilization (Peters & Gawehn, 2019). Despite efforts by the union to negotiate more favorable terms, Sarah noted a disconnection between management and staff priorities (Walicek, 2021), which has contributed to the escalation of tensions. In relation to organizational culture within the dimension of collaboration, Sarah mentioned that effective collaboration can be challenging to implement. She noted that recent labor disputes have further strained relationships between management and frontline staff, which has affected efforts towards collaboration. Sarah has had experience working on interdisciplinary teams within the medical center. She described the experience as generally positive but noted that organizational attitudes toward collaboration could influence the effectiveness of teamwork. The interview with Sarah at KBPMC utilized open-ended and probing questions, active listening, empathy, and rapport-building to gather detailed insights on labor disputes, organizational challenges, collaboration issues, and frontline experiences. Follow-up and reflective questioning techniques were employed, along with non-verbal cues like maintaining eye contact and nodding to convey interest, understanding, and support for a comprehensive interview approach. Issue Identification The interview highlighted a significant issue within KBPMC related to labor relations and employee dissatisfaction. The impending strike underscores broader concerns about understaffing and resource inadequacies within the healthcare system, with potential implications for patient care standards. Addressing these issues will require proactive efforts from both management and frontline workers to foster better communication, collaboration, and mutually beneficial solutions (Walicek, 2021). Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution Some theories could lead to an interdisciplinary solution. These include Systems Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Appreciation Inquiry. Systems Theory suggests that organizations like KBPMC are complex systems; changes in one part affect the whole. Social Exchange Theory suggests that recognizing mutual benefit is crucial at KBPMC. Appreciative Inquiry’s focus on strengths drives positive change at KBPMC. Apart from the theories mentioned above, Lewin’s change management model structured approach aligns with the need for proactive efforts, and interdisciplinary collaboration is essential. Lewin’s Change Management Model is a widely recognized and influential theory (Smith et al., 2022). This consists of three phases, which are unfreezing, changing, and refreezing (Barrow et al., 2022). The first stage involves employee relations and addressing employees’ dissatisfaction with their work. These actions are aimed at creating openness amongst the workers who operate on the frontline. This is a time when the staff members of an organization come together to solve some problems affecting them, such as the need for an adequate number of personnel to help in service delivery. The last stage involves regular meetings, giving necessary support, and short-term planning and celebration for achieving success while trying to instill these changes into an organization’s culture that promotes partnership and learning. Through Lewin’s Change Management Model, KBPMC has effectively dealt with the identified problem. It is also possible for hospital management to utilize this model to ensure a systematic approach is used in dealing with labor issues, handling employees’ grievances, and improving patients’ care standards (Raza et al., 2023). According to Burnes (2020), the study validates the effectiveness of Lewin’s model in facilitating organizational change and creating interdisciplinary collaboration. Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to
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