Assessment 4 - Clinical Case Scenario

Happy Clinic, located in a large rural town in Western Australia, is a private mental health hospital with 50 beds. It runs a 3-week program where patients attend psychotherapy groups, have private psychology sessions and also a weekly review with a psychiatrist. The clinic is staffed by registered and enrolled nurses, a psychologist, a social worker, two psychiatrists, and kitchen, cleaning and administrative staff. A Director of Nursing, a Deputy Director of nursing and a business manager oversee the operations of the facility. 

The clinic is about to undergo accreditation, and the Director of Nursing (DON) was asked to improve the documentation in the facility. The facility uses paper notes only, and the DON found that the nursing notes were very simplistic and contained minimal information. Some nurses had even written the same note daily. The DON also found that there were several different folders used: one for care plans, one for medication, one for medical notes, one for physical observations, one for nursing notes, and one for allied health. This lack of integration was identified as creating a risk to safety and quality. Clinicians were not looking at each other's notes, meaning that care is not holistic, and changes in mental health could go undetected. Therefore, clinicians rely on verbal handovers to understand the client's health status and progress.

The Director of Nursing asked you to lead the change to implement an integrated (paper based) record.

Instruction

You are to record your response to the Director of Nursing's request in a structured proposal. Your proposal must firstly explain clinical risk that is posed by this situation. Then, explain the steps you will take to lead the change to a new record system. In your proposal you are expected to demonstrate knowledge of leadership practice.

Structure

1. Introduction (150 words)

2. Explanation of clinical risks (300 words)

3. Strategies to implement the change (include 4-5 leadership strategies). Each strategy is to include a heading and must be explained and justified in relation to the scenario and supported by the literature. (1400 words)

4. Conclusion (150 words)

5. References

Notes:

Word allocations for each section are approximate. If the length is outside +/- 10 there will be a reduction of 10% of the total mark available for the assessment.

A video presentation will be made available to support your completion of this task.

Refer to the marking rubric attached 

The paper must be developed in academic paragraphs, with no bullet points.

Your focus is on leadership strategies to instigate the change. It is not to focus too much on the change itself. 

Font style Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman in size 12

Referencing style must following CDU APA 7th Referencing Style 2022 with a minimum of 15 journal articles, studies, books or other literature to support your statements. For best marks, use references published within the last 5 to 7 years