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Need for Change
Need for Change
With the US healthcare system having an increasing demand for primary healthcare, this called for changes in healthcare service providers, the skills required, and the learning institutions that prepared care workers. The nursing practitioner was one of the health practitioners greatly impacted by this change. The Challenge of costs saw the traditional family physician work in specialized areas rather than in primary healthcare resulting in high demand for nursing practitioners who emphasized primary care. However, nurses represented the largest healthcare professionals underutilized to meet the growing need for primary healthcare in the United States.
There was a need for higher learning institutions to restructure themselves to accommodate the changes that nursing practitioners were experiencing in their work and the higher decision-making authority bestowed on them. Experts in the healthcare education system recommended increasing the number of clinical hours required to educate nursing practitioners. Nevertheless, shifting more towards clinical education came with high costs that saw some institutions set up faculty-run clinics to generate money for purchasing services at teacher facilities. This method of meeting the rising cost by faculties demanded them alter their mandates to include revenue generation.
Institution Description
The college of St. Catherine offered bachelor’s degrees in healthcare and human service under the guiding principles of the Catholic faith. They aimed at preparing students to be ethical leaders and effective in the communities they served. These principles informed a curriculum that experienced city-wide recognition. The college’s curriculum incorporated a framework that ensured that learners received training in real-life situations alongside fieldwork assignments, clinical laboratory settings, and internships. Over the years, students’ demographics changed, and many students relied on financial aid. The college community appreciated the diversity in its student composition since it benefited from various abilities and backgrounds.
In 1998, Sister Andrea Lee was brought in as the new president to strengthen the community’s college programs and reputation. There had been a rising perception that the college was famous for offering liberal arts despite the variety of programs. Under the new leadership, the school set new goals, restructured the management, and also went ahead to launch a campaign to raise $100 million.
Need for Change in St. Catherine College
Management restructuring saw the election of three academic deans to supervise the school’s programs. According to Gamze 2014, bringing new leadership in an organization encourages positive change and improvement. McLaughlin headed the health professions programs. Smith cited the need to strengthen the health profession programs. It was unfortunate that despite having 20 heath programs and training a significant portion of health professionals in the state, no one could cite any department’s strength.
McLaughlin saw an opportunity in the healthcare sector. However, to achieve her vision, there was a necessity to question what the industry needed regarding their sector professionals—according to Javed & Ilyas 2018, understanding a sector’s state guides stakeholders on identifying improvement areas. Moreover, the discussion n how to prepare students to become healthcare leaders in the future was critical since women were the majority in the profession and were often placed at the lower end of the hierarchy in decision-making matters.
Health professions programs relied on collaborations with local area hospitals and community clinics to teach real-life experiences. However, there was a need to prepare professionals who can take on the systems view while being good team players. The school needed to design a curriculum that provokes critical thinking, which invokes healthcare competency (Rubenfeld & Scheffer 2014). Noting that a nurse practitioner cannot say that they were not trained on a certain matter when a problem arises with patients, they needed training that boosted their confidence and the ability to seek and master new skills when necessary.
Community-based clinics served as internship centers for students of St.Catherine. Other clinics at established healthcare systems would offer funding and placement for the college’s graduates over the years. The new programs would accommodate health professionals on a full-time basis and see clinics used as a classroom and marketing grounds for the program.
Changes in the marketplace and pressure on higher learning institutions to raise their graduates’ qualifications compelled educators to reconsider the preceptorship approach. The current operating environment prefers professionals with the capacity to debate in local and national conversations about healthcare. Simultaneously, the market trend to hire professionals who cost less yet are required to deliver more services raised the need to develop countermeasures to ensure an equal playing ground.
Having looked at the need for change in St.Catherine college, it is evident that the college should come up with a vision broad enough to differentiate it from other colleges in the rest of the world.
References
Gamze, S. A. R. T. (2014). The new leadership model of university management for innovation and entrepreneurship. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, (57), 73-90.
Javed, S. A., & Ilyas, F. (2018). Service quality and satisfaction in healthcare sector of Pakistan—the patients’ expectations. International journal of health care quality assurance.
Rubenfeld, M. G., & Scheffer, B. (2014). Critical thinking tactics for nurses. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.