2023 wk3 y Being a change agent is a nurse that brings about change positive change into the

 wk3/y

Being a change agent is a nurse that brings about change (positive change) into the work environment and helps facilitate the change.  They facilitate the change by helping bring about the change in a positive manner and show why the change is necessary and what improvements it will make in their day-to-day work. I have recently been a change agent in the implementation of a new labeling process for our specimen and blood collection process.  We needed to change the way we labeled our specimens to help facilitate the way they were processed at the core lab.  This was going to impact our work flow in the clinic dramatically though.  First, I talked with the staff about the upcoming change (which was going to cause a slight increase in work for my staff).  Then, to show the impact of the change to our staff I took them to the core lab where our specimens are processed and showed them how much extra work goes into the current process vs. the new process.  After seeing the decrease in work that it causes the core lab our staff was willing to take on the slight increase in work to help them out. Another example of being a change agent was when we implemented LEAN into our work flow several years ago.  This was a process that done over a whole year, but over this year we had to introduce new process to the staff and help them see the LEAN way of trying things.  We would get staff impute when we were drafting the process changes to help with the understand of the why the changes were important and needed to be done.  With LEAN one big development was the development of standard work so that all patients were to receive the same standard of care every time they walked through the doors.  We had staff help us with the processes and so when we rolled it out, they understood the importance and we all had the same goals in mind, which was the patient.  I’m sure that we all are change agents everyday with small things we do, but they affect someone or somebody at some point.  Change is hard but we should always remember that change is often for the good.