Hcs 514 - Managing in Today’s Health Care Organization

Universal Worker

Erica Walker

University of Phoneix

Managing in Today’s Health Care Organization

HCS 514

Steven Bonell

February 3, 2014

Universal Worker

The re-organization of work and the redeployment of staff associated with the implementation of functional flexibility are likely to have significant implications for the employees and managers involved. This functional flexibility is known also as a universal worker. According to the Long Term Care Improvement Guide, a universal worker is cross trained to meet a wide range of a resident‘s needs, including potentially personal care, housekeeping, cooking and meal assistance, laundry services and activities. Such a staffing model can maximize opportunities for building relationships between residents and staff. There can be challenges, however, to such a model. When individual staff feel more comfortable in or prioritize some aspects of their job over others, certain activities may be left at the wayside, ultimately to the detriment of the resident. A modification to a universal worker model is to use cross trained CNAs to meet a wide range of residents‘ needs, but turn to "specialists" for certain roles (for example, housekeeping or activities). 

Redesign of a job requires the person assigned to the task to collect all available information on the current job and work environment. This task includes current job descriptions, documents pertaining to the different tasks assigned to the job, databases, minutes of meetings, duty rosters, employee behavior, and outcomes of tasks. Another important aspect of this preparatory phase is observation of workers during their daily routine. Movement and work-studies provide valuable information on the workflow and productivity of staff members in their current roles. Observation of interaction between employees among themselves and with patients and associated activities provides good insight of the efficiency of the current job specifications. Meetings with staff and informal conversations about their expectations of the job are good sources for planning job redesign.

Job analysis is the process of considering all the aspects of the new or redesigned job by breaking it down into job elements, the level of autonomy of the worker, the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the job, and the behavior required from the employee. The job analyst considers physical abilities required to perform the newly designed job as well as all the individual tasks necessary to complete each job function, which in turn relates to a specific outcome. The job analyst considers and evaluates the current work environment, the proposed work environment of the new job, and the psychological impact of these changes. The changed job will affect organizational culture, interrelationships between workers and the relationship between the worker and supervisor. The physical environment may also change when the employee performs tasks in areas that he has not worked before. The new job may involve new work groups and technological components unfamiliar to the worker. The job analyst analyzes the potential impact these changes may have on the perceptions of the employee and co-workers in the new environment, and adjusts specifications to the job design that will enhance the smooth interaction.