Role of Nurses in Healthcare and Issues that Impact Workflow (Essay Sample)

The role of nurses in healthcare
Nurses are described as the backbone of health care setups. This is because they are the primary caregivers, who interact closely with the patient during delivery of care. Nurses also communicate with other members of the multidisciplinary health committee to establish a workflow that makes it easy to deliver integrated, holistic care to the patient. They are the renowned champions for transformational changes in healthcare (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017).
In the delivery of care, nurses follow a well-designed workflow and workarounds to achieve the desired goals. An organizational workflow is a chronological set of procedures laid down to accomplish goals in patient care. An organizational workflow comprises of a set of processes, resources, and personnel needed to undertake these processes. On the other hand, workarounds are meant to “circumvent a block in workflow and thereby achieve a desired goal” (Seaman & Erlen, 2015, p. 235). Successful workflow is grounded on effective inter-departmental coordination within the health system. However, a lack of proper management skills and ineffective communication patterns pose a challenge to the nursing workflow. Poor handing over techniques, lack of departmental coordination on patient care, and poor delegation techniques are some of the factors which cause a hindrance to the implementation of patient-