The Importance Of Stakeholders In Nursing Care

Strategic plan success is dependent on those who drive process change to achieve desired outcomes; hence, stakeholders are the drivers. The provision of education is essential to helping all stakeholders understand the ‘Why’ and need for change. Without their commitment to sharing accountability for improving the patient experience of care, the organization’s HCAHPS performance scores will remain status quo. Stakeholders need to understand the ramifications of remaining status quo – most importantly how this affects patient perceptions of the organization’s ability to provide quality health services. Engaging stakeholders in education and training is an investment that will return improvements in job satisfaction, quality of care, and ‘top-box’ rated patient experiences of care. Aligning stakeholders to meet strategic goals is an opportunity that cannot be overlooked.
Four stakeholder groups are identified that need to understand and support the goals of the strategic plan and include: 1) Board of Trustees/Executive Leadership; 2) Hospitalists; 3) Nursing; and 4) Pharmacy and Physical Therapy. The educational topics planned for the strategic plan kickoff include: 1) HCAHPS measures; 2) Hospital Compare Data; 3) Communication/Mindful Practice Strategies; 4) Hardwiring Practice; 5) Pain Management ; 6) Discharge Process/SMART form; 7)
The material will be comprehensive with respect to the eight topics previously mentioned. Although the providers, pharmacists, and therapists may not believe that all of this material is applicable to them, it is important for them to understand that the patient experience of care measures listed in this strategic plan do have components that affect each of them. Therefore, offering the same educational presentation to each of the four clinical stakeholder groups is