Change Agent In Nursing

Change is an ongoing process that takes place across peoples’ lives. Change is inevitable; it is essential for growth, which creates innovation, awareness, and creativity to generate new opportunities. Especially in the health care system, the change process is fundamental to provide efficient patient care. For nurse managers, dealing with the management of change can be challenging because it comes with resistance from the team members. Therefore, the nurse manager, as well her team members, need to be knowledgeable, competent, and have the leadership skills to maintain the expertise needed to carry out the complexity of the change management process. Change is a complex process where people can be passive, divergent, or supportive toward …show more content…
A change agent means someone who is willing to assist in conveying a positive change environment to create a job improvement. As Recklies (2014) mentioned, some of the important roles of the change agent are someone who passionately seeks to lead or generate change, demonstrate commitment, and believe the need for planned change. In addition, a change agent needs to have most of the leadership qualities to be able to influence change perspectives in order to solve the problem. Some of the qualities of a change agent are visionary, creative, flexible, risk taker, confidence, comprehend and most importantly a change agent need to effectively communicate with his or her team members (Berwick, 2011). The professional nurse plays a critical role in providing an improvement in the health care system for patients and the community. In order to be an effective change agent, a nurse needs to focus on three roles such as visionary, facilitator and innovative to come up with various ideas (Al-Abri, 2007). When a nurse has the visionary skill, he or she can motivate his or her peers through effective communication skills, advocate the need for change, coach his or her member to endure change and provide feedbacks to bring change in the facility. According to Rhodes, Morris, & Lazenby (2011), setting clear goals is …show more content…
However, identifying a specific motivation theory can enhance the effectiveness of change management. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory represents the best motivational theory, which implies an understanding of basic human needs. All human beings have some basic needs that are necessary to function and the absence of them creates instability in life. According to Huitt (2007), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs consists of seven components such as physiological needs: food, bodily comforts; safety needs: shelter, security, out of danger; belongingness and love needs: affiliation with others, be accepted; and esteem needs: to accomplish, be knowledgeable, gain appreciation and recognition. Furthermore, Maslow believed that an individual is ready to focus on their growth when deficiency needs are met. Maslow initial theory consisted of one criterion for growth that was self-actualization. However, Maslow later breaks down the growth needs into different factors such as cognition: to know, to understand and explore; aesthetic: symmetry, organize and beauty; self-actualization: to recognize one’s maximum potential. The last component was self-transcendence: to help other people realize their potential without interfering one’s ego (Huitt, 2007). Therefore, understanding Maslow’s theory gives a change agent clues to understanding the audience that the change agent wants to motivate for the change