Week 3 Discussion: Cross Training Staff
The practice of cross training staff (learning another type of job) is an old and often successful practice at hospitals.
Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research cross training techniques. Based on your research and training, respond to the following:
- What steps would you take in deciding whether or not to cross train lab technicians as x-ray technicians?
- What are the negative and positive financial considerations in making this decision?
- What steps will you take to deal with a weekend staffing crisis whereby your small hospital has no x-ray technicians in-house, yet the demand for their services is very high including 30 percent of the need emanating from critical care units?
Make sure that you include an introduction and conclusion to your post.
To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Your initial posting should be addressed at 150-300 words. Submit your document to this Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.
Respond to your peers throughout the unit. Justify your answers with examples, research, and reasoning. Follow up posts need to be submitted by the end of the week.
Use the following rubric as a guide to complete your discussion responses.
Sample Answer
Cross Training Staff
Cross-training is one of the approaches applied in healthcare to ensure the employees have the necessary skills required to perform jobs that are not their primary duty. Some of the benefits of this training program in a healthcare organization include increased efficiency. This training enables team members to perform the responsibilities of other members absent since they are familiar with their duties (Ninan et al., 2019). It also allows employees to gain more skills making them more flexible and valuable to the healthcare organization. According to Vasanthi & Basariya, (2018), cross-training promotes employee development and talent retention. This helps minimize hiring and recruitment costs associated with staff turnover.
Question 1
The practice of cross-training staff can be applied at a hospital to train lab technicians as x-ray technicians. However, various steps need to be taken to decide whether to cross-train lab technicians as x-ray technicians. The first step will include setting goals for the cross-training program. This will include identification of the specific critical tasks, which cross-training is needed (Vasanthi & Basariya, 2018). The second step will involve identifying the proper people who will be able to perform the cross-training tasks. Here, the lab technicians will be examined to determine whether they are the potential employees to learn tasks handled by x-ray technicians. Thus, various factors will be considered, including whether the cross-training program complies with the industry’s laws and regulations (Vasanthi & Basariya, 2018). The third step will entail an evaluation of the benefits of cross-training program. Therefore, the organization can invest in a cross-training program that is will beneficial to the organization (Vasanthi & Basariya, 2018) After determining the benefits of the training program, the healthcare organization will decide if there are enough funds, time, training materials, and facilities required to accomplish the cross-training.
Question 2
There are various positive financial considerations involved in making this decision. For instance, cross-training lab technicians as x-ray technicians can provide the organization with a great return on investment by reducing employee retention and turnover. This helps to reduce hiring and recruitment costs incurred due to employee turnover (Ninan et al., 2019). Also, cross-training helps prevent the financial losses incurred by an organization due to employee absenteeism. On the other hand, ineffective cross-training can lead to misuse of financial resources (Ninan et al., 2019). Therefore, to avoid wastage of financial resources, it is essential to assess the economic benefits of cross-training.
Question 3
One of the steps to take in addressing a weekend staffing crisis in a small healthcare facility with no in-house x-ray technicians includes prioritizing the assignments. Therefore, the duties of the x-ray technicians will be examined and categorized as high, medium, and low priority (Narayanamurthy & Gurumurthy, 2018)). Thus, the high-priority activities or critical care units will be assigned to highly experienced x-ray technicians. The low-skilled x-ray technicians, such as the interns and cross-trained staff, will be allocated in less-critical units and low-priority assignments. This will help reduce the workload handled by the x-ray technicians and prevent burnout issues, allowing them to work for an extended period. The second step will include developing demand-based schedules. Therefore, more staff will be selected to work in specific shifts where the consumer demand is high, like during weekends and few staff members (Narayanamurthy & Gurumurthy, 2018). Lastly, these interventions will be evaluated to determine their effectiveness in addressing the issue weekend staffing crisis in the hospital and then improve them to achieve the main objective.
Conclusion
The practice of cross-training staff is essential in healthcare since it promotes efficiency in workflow, the flexibility of employees and also enhances staff development and retention. When implementing cross-training, it is necessary to set the goals of the cross-training program, identify the proper people who will be able to perform the cross-training tasks, and evaluate the benefits of the cross-training program. Also, the issue of weekend staffing crisis can be addressed through demand-based scheduling and by prioritizing the assignments.
