Institutional Authority and Communication in OR Nursing

"Institutional Authority and Communication in OR Nursing"

Nancy comes into the hospital. Unlike most days the hospital seems to be in full force. “What is going on?”, Nancy  asks her coworker. “JACHO is company that pretty much runs the heath system. They occasionally audit our facility [1. Authoritative Organization]. “These audits are just one of their many regulation processes”[2. Regulating Standard]. “Nancy, aren’t you going to the conference that they have in San Diego?” her coworker asks. 

“Ya I am! I heard that it was really great last year.” Nancy replays

 “These conferences are a way for JACHO to teach and encourage good nursing practices, but they are also really uplifting, and get you pumped to be a nurse”, the coworker explains to the patient who asked about JACHO [3. Influential Event]. “They also use these conferences to convey and instill values in the nursing leadership so that they can then enforce these values in the work place”.

 Nancy thought back to when her boss, Sara, went to the conference and it was all she could talk about for months. She loved how focused JACHO was on helping the patients. She would quote the conference constantly. She also talked about how she made other nursing friends that she is excited to see at the next conference [4. Authoritative Publication]. This is why Nancy is so excited to go to the conference this year.

One of the meeting that Sara often referenced back to was the meeting about maintaining a system of integrity. This meeting discussed how JACHO is constantly checked on by the state legislature, just as JACHO constantly checks on hospital to make sure they are meeting core measures. The government changes laws and regulates JACHO just as JACHO makes changes to and regulates hospitals [5. Challenging Authority / Changing Standards]. The purpose of this meeting was to help the hospital staff relate to JACHO, and make nurses realize that they are both working to create a positive work environment that benefits the patients. This conference helped in steal a sense of unity between JACHO and the nurses. "That is way these checkups are necessary", Sara would always say. “They can be annoying if you don’t understand the reason for them.” So Nancy was excited to go to the conference and begin to understand, because to her, the audits were still extremely annoying. Perhaps Nancy will gain a new perspective by participating in the conference.