Question: Problem Solving: Working Toward Shared Governance

You are the supervisor of a surgical services department in a nonunion hospital. The staff on your unit have become increasingly frustrated with hospital policies regarding staffing ratios, on-call pay, and verbal medical orders but feel that they have limited opportunities for providing feedback to change the current system. You would like to explore the possibility of moving toward a shared governance model of decision making to resolve this issue and others like it but are not quite sure where to start.

ASSIGNMENT: Assume that you are the supervisor in this case. Answer the following questions.

1. Who do I need to involve in this discussion and at what point?

2. How might I determine if the overarching organizational structure supports shared governance? How would I determine if external stakeholders would be impacted? How would I determine if organizational culture and subculture would support a shared governance model?

3. What types of nursing councils might be created to provide a framework for operation?

4. Who would be the members on these nursing councils?

5. What support mechanisms would need to be in place to ensure success of this project?

6. What would be my role as a supervisor in identifying and resolving employee concerns in a shared governance model?