The Case of Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation

Semiskilled or unskilled workforce is always a challenging feat particularly in the nursing management practice. This is due to the fact that there are many laws to observe, standards of practice and regulations, norms and very highly particular regimes of ethical conduct. Traditionally, nursing students or those undertaking courses leading to the nursing profession have served in hospitals under systems that are closely supervised (Manion, 2011). In their training, this pupilage into a medical facility makes the nursing student cultivate practical approaches to care delivery. In the contemporary situation, age diversity, cultural diversity and multiculturalism are aspects of management that have become commonplace in nursing practice and leadership. For this reason, managers have to device appropriate and relevant systems of work delegations, supervision, and evaluation (Seutloadi, 2015). Furthermore, technologies have become very much handy both in addressing medical practice challenges and in the management of medical facilities. The diverse categories of unskilled workers in the medical practice can be treated to controlled and regulated modulation in their service delivery under appropriately modeled work programs. The following are direct policy imperatives of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation highlights such initiatives of project control mechanism. They are policy imperatives involving specific guidelines outlining the manner of task delegation to minimize the experienced missed or incorrect care, they also capture broad based measures to ensure the effectiveness of the inclusion program.     

A policy detaining direct guidelines is a suitable and relevant tool in the improvement of inclusivity among unskilled nursing workers (Denise, Rochester & Mcmillan, 2012). Following the implantation, drastic change was experienced because all workers bore direct responsibility, which they knew they had to perform and they would have to fill forms that aided a follow-up process. In the program, adherence to the professional ethics as well as the legal provisions was a critical area where unskilled workers needed special assistance. It was determined that there should be periodicals and magazines as well as conferences that the workers ought to participate in as a process of integration into the fraternity (Dychtwald, Erickson & Morison, 2013). Enrolment to the relevant professional bodies and making express commitment to adhere to the regulations was made mandatory so as to ensure the unskilled workers recognize the prominence of legal implications whenever there are flaws committed during their tenure. Most importantly, innovation regarding the care procedures in the light of available equipment and resource constraints should be encouraged but under precise limitations only allowed to the professional personnel.

Appropriate training schedules 

Training is a fundamental mechanism right through induction into work and throughout the profile of an employee’s contribution as an unskilled worker. While a greater part of their contribution at the workplace is not professional, the unskilled nurses fill a very useful gap in the medical fraternity due to the large number of patients that require personalized care on a daily basis (Smith et al, 2012). While collaborating with professional personnel, the approach of their incorporation to the workforce should be designed as a tutoring and mentoring process where professional workers make daily assignments and follow up the manner of their implementation. Peer to peer training seasons can be incorporated to bridge the skills gaps between the aging experienced nurses and the younger more eager juniors. The training modules should be diverse and tailored to the training needs of the individual unskilled workers.

Consultative workshops and seminars is another very useful avenue for the enhancement of skills deficiency among unskilled workers. These sessions should be made to address the most pressing training needs of the time while also facilitating a gradual transition from the status of unskilled worker to a professional (Osuji, 2014). The best way to achieve this outcome is by enabling the modules to be assessed and graded so that they can be facilitated with certification and relevant accreditation. While the overall approach should be eventual upgrading of the unskilled workers to the professional levels, care should be taken to cultivate incrementally their disposition towards the customers. Customers are also a critical constituency in the service delivery cycle and their contribution is useful for both the institutions in terms of funds and the unskilled practitioners.  

Effective managerial approaches 

Management of the workforce is a key factor in promoting collegial feeling among unskilled nurses despite their diverse backgrounds and orientations. Since these individuals have diverse backgrounds in terms of age, ethnicity and social and religious origins, workplace practices should tend to make explicit role prescriptions and work routines (Araujo, Evans & Maeda, 2016). Such a mechanism can promote clinical nurse autonomy and thus foster performance. Elements of discrimination and unnecessary competition at work might have a negative consequence because unskilled workers naturally feel insecure about their value at the workplace. Through autonomy enhancing practices, greater monitoring and evaluation mechanisms can be instituted without much resistance and complaining.  

Team leadership as a management model should be promoted because it is difficult working with diverse groups as multitudes. Communication is the backbone of leadership and consultative models will enhance inclusivity and thus productivity of all the parties (Jeon, Merlyn & Chenoweth, 2010). However, professionalism must be given a chance because of the delicate nature of the medical profession. All lives matter and professionals in the medical services fraternity are regulated by extensive counts of legal and moral standards and benchmarks. Moreover, the professional bodies that develop service delivery standards should be always be consulted and collaborated with so as to have compliance with quality standards.  

Proactive leadership 

Leadership practices are at the heart of service delivery and the nursing fraternity is the one mostly prone to leadership dysfunction. The nursing practice involves many constituencies that have immediate needs and demands. For instance, patients have their families and kin who may reside with them in hospitals and are interested in the wellbeing of their sick relative. Government agencies and other organizations also make extensive demands on the amount of work that needs to be accomplished on a daily basis (Weston, 2010). At the same time, senior nurses and other professionals have demands that should be fulfilled. The leadership model in such an environment ought to be collegiate and collaborative at all times.

Nursing leadership practices that make the entire workplace healthy and accommodative ought to be encouraged. It is through such a process that all the parties to the cycle derive their deserved reparations (Bohmer & Imison, 2013; Rigolosi, 2012). When the workers are allowed to interact with the patients, their relatives through an open and friendly manner of consultation, both the parties gain greater confidence in the other parties, and this is useful for the recovery of patients.     

Effective work environment facilitation 

The manner of facilitation of the work environments are a fundamentally useful consideration when the nature of the workforce is non-standard. It is useful to have elaborate worksheet forms and work reports filled effectively and on a daily basis to enhance monitoring and evaluation practices. With the advancements in technologies in the medical fraternity, unskilled workers require elaborate induction programs that make them familiar with the machines. They also need to be assisted with expert contribution whenever there are challenges because the lack of specialty in given tasks might be traumatizing to both the patient and the caregiver (Lozano, Meardi & Martín-Artiles, 2015). Very useful tools in the daily service of nurses are computers and ICT gadgetry that have automated functionality. These automated gadgets make the work of unskilled workers easy and effective thus boosting their morale at work and cultivates satisfaction both in the workforce and among the patients. A very key consideration in this regard also entail the facilitation of appropriate infrastructure in the workplace.

Just like a healthy person is liberated to indulge in extensive productive activity, the workplace should be arranged in a manner that everyone is supported to yield their optimal contribution to the institutional goals and mission (Admi & Moshe-Eilon, 2010). Diverse professionals should be available to give advice and counsel regarding their specific lines of duty. This should be done in tandem with the regime that promotes specialization among the unskilled workers to attach them to those departments where their training is relevant.  Record keeping functions of management and employee evaluation ought to be carried out with stealth so that the process contributes positively to the collegiate mood that is the hallmark of employee relations in the nursing fraternity.