The dilemma for healthcare leadership is that interventions to prevent patient falls exist, but over the years it has been unclear as to which ones are the most effective and what strategies should be implemented to best support their needs (Delaforce et al., 2023). Because of the fact that national initiatives are aimed at preventing patient harm from falls, healthcare leaders have come to the conclusion that in order to be effective, a falls prevention program needs to be multi-faceted, which in turn produces a complex system. However, as the system becomes more complex, the risk of failures towards implementation also increases because the implementation of a falls prevention program can be influenced by several factors. Factors such as, environmental and contextual issues; staff knowledge, beliefs and attitudes; organizational culture and climate; staff workloads; patient education; and access to appropriate equipment to name a few, which are all driven by healthcare leadership (Ayton et. al, 2017). For this reason, the purpose of this study was to sound the alarm to healthcare leadership to establish a standardized evidenced based falls prevention program. By focusing on this, the researcher was successful in highlighting a series of fall risk assessment tools and interventions that has been known to develop fall prevention programs within healthcare. Equally important, the researcher provided several themes that has known to both inhibit and build fall prevention programs. Thereafter, the researcher then suggested two leadership strategies, reflexivity and resonant, for healthcare leaders to consider adopting as a means to help them develop effective fall prevention programs going forward.

The ethical dilemma for the healthcare industry is that although they strive to keep patients safe, the culture reflects an underreporting of medical errors. Because of this, healthcare leaders have strived relentlessly to create a positive patient safety culture. A positive patient safety culture alludes to traits within a company that permit patient safety to be a goal, including open reporting, a no blame environment to incident reporting, dedicated leadership, continuous companywide learning, and a take charge recognition of safety warnings.Despite the efforts to create this type of safety culture, based on findings within this study, the conclusion is that leaders within the healthcare community have failed to foster this form of culture. Because of this, the objective of this study was to explore the importance of changing the culture within healthcare towards the underreporting of medical errors. In terms of methodology used to explore a culture change, the researcher performed a literature review. As for the results towards addressing a culture change, the researcher identified three barriers. Thereafter, the researcher provided resolutions to overcome these barriers.

The workforce for registered nurses (RNs) are currently facing unprecedented challenges. Current challenges such as the consequences associated with patient falls and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) have placed a social and financial burden on the U.S. healthcare system. What’s more, future challenges such as the expected retirement for baby boomers and an expected shortage on the availability of medical physicians has raised many concerns for healthcare organizations on how they will deliver care in the years to come. The conclusion is that these challenges will significantly affect the well-being of the RN workforce. Hence, because of these challenges, the objective of this research was to explore various leadership styles to use among nurses towards challenges faced within the 21st century. By focusing on these challenges, the researcher provided findings around ethics and its impact on decision-making. Thereafter, the researcher highlighted common leadership styles that are used, and then proposed a new leadership theory, servant leadership, as an option for Chief Nursing Officers to use to help guide its nursing workforce going forward.

Patient safety has progressed over the past decade from being a relatively insignificant issue to a position of high importance for healthcare executives and policy makers. However, most of the opportunities for healthcare professionals to identify and act upon patient safety concerns are likely to occur much further upstream, such as, within the day-to-day mundane activities. Because of this, policy makers have ramped up the focus on the role of “whistleblowers” towards raising concerns around patient safety in healthcare settings. The notion of whistleblowing in healthcare has been known to bring healthcare scandals to light, which in essence has contributed to preventing future harm to patients. Although this may be true, when compared to other industries, there remains relatively little research on whistleblowing in healthcare. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to examine the role of organizational culture and change in healthcare, the link between ethics and whistleblowing, and the processes and levels of whistleblowing within healthcare. By focusing on these, the researcher was successful in highlighting a series of organizational factors that has been known to both inhibit and foster whistleblowing within healthcare. Thereafter, the researcher then suggested steps that can be used to help organizations build and sustain an ethical culture where whistleblowing is viewed as a morale right.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that occur in patients during their time of care in a hospital. Considerable emphasis is currently placed on reducing HAIs through improving hand-hygiene (HH) compliance among healthcare professionals because HAIs are a critical challenge to public health in the United States. By focusing on meeting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HH standards, the purpose of this qualitative research was to explore how noncompliance with these standards and lack of technology usage affect HAIs in the intensive care unit. Additionally, the goal of this research was to explore behavioral factors and best practices that influence compliance rates in intensive care units. Thereafter, the researcher provided recommendations for healthcare leadership to address the phenomenon of HAIs