NR 534 Week 5 Discussion: Organizational Culture and Climate
on Group Process and Team Building
Professor McDermott and Group,
Part 1:
This is an interesting topic as I am the manager of the emergency department (ED) and lately, there has
been a surge in medication errors. While we did not create a ad hoc special committee, there were a few
meetings regarding the subject and how to reduce the incidence of medication errors. I believe an ad hoc
committee would be a great idea to tackle medication errors that occur in all departments. The ad hoc
committee should contain members from all departments to include respiratory and pharmacy as they have
access to the medication dispensing machine as well. The stakeholders are of course the patients, but also
include the nurse administrating the medication, the leaders of the departments, the pharmacy team and
ultimately the chief nursing officer (CNO).
In order to adequately answer the culture and climate regarding the committee and their outcomes,
the differences between culture and climate must be explained. Organizational culture, then, can be defined as
a system of shared beliefs and values and actions that guide the behavior of its members (CCN, 2018). For
example, my hospital is not for profit, Christian based organization. Our mission statement can be broken
down to “treating patients with the guidance of Christ”. So, in turn, our culture is religious, this is
unchangeable, and permanent. In order to reach top administration, including the “C suite”, the individual
must be an active member of the 7 th day Adventist church. Additionally, the cafeteria does not serve pork of
any kind or seafood such as shrimp. These restrictions are part of the culture of the church and thus the
hospital. Climate can be defined as Employee behavior in organizations is a result of their personal
characteristics as well as the environment in which they perform (Berberoglu, 2018). The climate of the
hospital is mostly in line with the culture, however, not everyone appreciates the religious undertones and
open prayer at every huddle and meeting.
For the committee to be successful, open communication and ability to speak freely must be present.
The CNO in my hospital wanted to immediately punish all staff members with medication errors, this was
authoritative and usually a “knee jerk reaction”. However, the pharmacy director was not of the same line of
thinking. They both had two very different ways of looking at the issue and how to solve it. Discipline is not
always the first step, sometimes, finding out what the underlying cause is and thus prevention is a more
successful route. The CNO and pharmacy director had to come to an agreement on how to handle the
medication errors. An investigation was launched into which department had the most, what time of day was
it, what drugs were most commonly included in the errors and is there a pattern with the nurses. Turns out,
one reason was how the physician was ordering the medication and most errors occurred during the busy
times of medication pass at two dispensing stations that were out in the open. Most were located in a locked
medication room, but some were not, to include the ED, Medical Surgical (MS) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Almost all of the nurses said they were distracted or rushing because they were busy. The decision was made
to tape a “off limits box” around the open medication dispensing unit. When the nurse was inside the box, he
or she was off limits. That means no talking, bothering or otherwise distracting the individual while they are
inside the box dispensing medication.
This greatly reduced the frequency of medication errors. The nurses were also coached to take more
This study source was downloaded by 100000829957125 from CourseHero.com on 02-02-2022 22:18:16 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/38790252/NR534-week-5-part-1-post-1docx/
on Group Process and Team Building
Professor McDermott and Group,
Part 1:
This is an interesting topic as I am the manager of the emergency department (ED) and lately, there has
been a surge in medication errors. While we did not create a ad hoc special committee, there were a few
meetings regarding the subject and how to reduce the incidence of medication errors. I believe an ad hoc
committee would be a great idea to tackle medication errors that occur in all departments. The ad hoc
committee should contain members from all departments to include respiratory and pharmacy as they have
access to the medication dispensing machine as well. The stakeholders are of course the patients, but also
include the nurse administrating the medication, the leaders of the departments, the pharmacy team and
ultimately the chief nursing officer (CNO).
In order to adequately answer the culture and climate regarding the committee and their outcomes,
the differences between culture and climate must be explained. Organizational culture, then, can be defined as
a system of shared beliefs and values and actions that guide the behavior of its members (CCN, 2018). For
example, my hospital is not for profit, Christian based organization. Our mission statement can be broken
down to “treating patients with the guidance of Christ”. So, in turn, our culture is religious, this is
unchangeable, and permanent. In order to reach top administration, including the “C suite”, the individual
must be an active member of the 7 th day Adventist church. Additionally, the cafeteria does not serve pork of
any kind or seafood such as shrimp. These restrictions are part of the culture of the church and thus the
hospital. Climate can be defined as Employee behavior in organizations is a result of their personal
characteristics as well as the environment in which they perform (Berberoglu, 2018). The climate of the
hospital is mostly in line with the culture, however, not everyone appreciates the religious undertones and
open prayer at every huddle and meeting.
For the committee to be successful, open communication and ability to speak freely must be present.
The CNO in my hospital wanted to immediately punish all staff members with medication errors, this was
authoritative and usually a “knee jerk reaction”. However, the pharmacy director was not of the same line of
thinking. They both had two very different ways of looking at the issue and how to solve it. Discipline is not
always the first step, sometimes, finding out what the underlying cause is and thus prevention is a more
successful route. The CNO and pharmacy director had to come to an agreement on how to handle the
medication errors. An investigation was launched into which department had the most, what time of day was
it, what drugs were most commonly included in the errors and is there a pattern with the nurses. Turns out,
one reason was how the physician was ordering the medication and most errors occurred during the busy
times of medication pass at two dispensing stations that were out in the open. Most were located in a locked
medication room, but some were not, to include the ED, Medical Surgical (MS) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Almost all of the nurses said they were distracted or rushing because they were busy. The decision was made
to tape a “off limits box” around the open medication dispensing unit. When the nurse was inside the box, he
or she was off limits. That means no talking, bothering or otherwise distracting the individual while they are
inside the box dispensing medication.
This greatly reduced the frequency of medication errors. The nurses were also coached to take more
This study source was downloaded by 100000829957125 from CourseHero.com on 02-02-2022 22:18:16 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/38790252/NR534-week-5-part-1-post-1docx/
