SWOT analysis

Jordan University of Science and Technology

Faculty of Nursing

NUR 707: Management of Nursing Services II

SWOT analysis

Submitted by:

Ashraf Smadi. RN, NSA student

Asmadi_pcns@yahoo.com

Student # 20063040026

Submitted to:

Dr. Yaseen Hayajneh RN PhD

Dece.2007

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AL­yarmouk hospital

Proposed SWOT analysis 2007 / 2008

This SWOT analysis proposed for Al-Yarmouk hospital, during my training as

required for Nursing Service Administration Practicum II (NUR 707) course. I will

work in partnership with Chief Nursing Officer to propose this SWOT analysis in

order to achieve one of the most important managerial tools used for strategic

planning of healthcare systems, because this assignment requires some extraordinary

skills to achieve it in success way, such as Brainstorming skill to generate as many

novel ideas to help an hospital understand or recognize how it relates to it is internal

(strength & weaknesses) and external environment (opportunities & threats).

I hope that this analysis will fruitfully assists hospital administrators to do

something toward better achievements, if the hospital is not appear make straight with

the world going on around it. And to complete their mission as possible as in success

way and keep it congruent with hospital strategic goals.

Structure of the hospital

Al-Yarmouk hospital is located in north of Jordan, specifically in the Bani

Kananah, relates with the province of Irbid. Follow the Jordanian Ministry of Health,

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provides health care services for about 100.000 Bani Kananah patients especially, in

addition of all Jordanian patients.

AL-yarmouk hospital was opened in 2003, consists of three buildings,

outpatients' clinic, emergency, and inpatients area. The total hospital capacities beds

are one hundred beds but are only sixteen beds available and about 30-35 physicians,

and 150 nurses working in the hospital and the bed occupancy rate between 65-70%.

Inpatients building in the Yarmouk hospital consist of male-female surgical

department, male-female medical department, pediatric department, neonatal

department, maternal department, intensive care unit, Hemodialysis unit and four

operation theaters.

Qualifications of Nursing Department

The objectives of nursing department are providing nursing health care in

satisfactory level, develop competency of staff team, be familiar with patient needs,

and collaboration with other hospital departments in effective way to improve nursing

care services. Nursing department is managed by CNO who have diploma degree and

24 years of experience. Al-Yarmouk hospital has nursing staff mix. It contains 42

registered nurses (10 M; 32 F), and 28 midwife (22 are have diploma degree and 6

have bachelor's degree) also a 28 assistant nurses (22 M, 6 F), and 30 Aid nurses,

whom exposure to nursing training programs about 6-18 months. Most of the register

nurses were graduated from Jordan University of science and technology and other

Jordanian universities.

The Al-Yarmouk hospital classified as a basic hospital, the total capacity of

hospital beds is one hundred bed, they are only 60 beds are available. Nursing shift

schedule divided into two shifts (A shift & BC shifts). The A shift time duration 8

hours from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm of work for each A shift, and BC shift with 16 hours

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from 3:00 pm to 7:00 am. Nurses provide patient care upon assignment sheet, in

which each nurse is responsible for delivering his/her assignment never mind the

nurse educational level.

Al-yarmouk hospital as a system

According to system theory; it is enable health care administrators to structure,

organize, understand, interpret, communicate, and measure changes or result of a

whole or parts of health care system, here we can applied it to understand the nature

of Al-yarmouk hospital, and the challenges of managing hospital in internal and

external environment, also it will assist hospital managers to identifying hospital

strengths weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.

Al-yarmouk hospital, classified as an open system, is composed of interrelated

subsystems and suprasystems, which process input, throughput, and output of

services, energy and information. Al-yarmouk hospital boundary is permeable, as it is

fully interacting with their environment (internal & external). It is composed of inputs

which include human resources, financial, information, materials, and time. And

process components such as planning, controlling, staffing, directing, organizing,

decision-making, sorting, sharing information, and discussing .And outputs such as all

health care services that result from the hospital throughput or processing of human

inputs, technical, financial, and social. All hospital departments such as nursing,

radiology, medical staff, lab, pharmacy, and security have fully interaction between

them and other external departments, and have interdependent or interconnections,

additionally hospital and environment affect each others to be survive, it is

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interchange with the environments, either input from the environment or output into

environment. Finally it is having equifinality and purposefulness features which mean

that the hospital can deliver all healthcare services to patients from various routes or

ways.

Al-yarmouk hospital also maintains their dynamic existence by continuously

exchanging energy and information with their environments. Threats are external

factors that can effect negatively on hospital services when the managers failed to

minimize the impact of disruptive forces from external environment, opportunities are

also an external factors but effect positively when hospital managers effectively

mobilized the resources and facilities from the external environment. Therefore,

hospital mangers must always keep the homeostatic situation among their system as

possible as they can. Consequently, Strengths and weakness are internal factors which

that effect directly on hospital healthcare services positively or negatively. Therefore

healthcare administrators must do periodically feedback about all aspects of hospital

information and processing that can be used to evaluate and monitor the hospital

processes and to guide it to more effective performance and make control over it to be

surviving.

HOSPITAL MISSION:

To improve, restore, and provide health care services to the patients, and to

being a training hospital for health science students.

Strengths of the hospital

1. Availability of expertise nursing staff ( more than five years), in spite of the 

problem of nursing shortage.

2. Availability of job description for all nursing levels.

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3. Compliance code of ethics of hospital health care providers.

4. Periodically evaluation for nurses staffs.

5. Availability of in­service education programs. 

6. Health care provider's development (physicians, nurses, multi­disciplinary 

team).

7. Different program development through continues education department and 

training courses.

8. Good interdisciplinary working place social support.

9. Availability of the hospital infrastructures.

10. Availability of computer tempography­ CT scan device . 

11. Strong informal communication channels among hospital departments.

Weakness of the hospital

1. Low commitments of hospital polices and regulations.

2. Lack of resources support (time, money, and support) for development.

3. Few numbers of RN's comparing with practical nurses. 

4. No competition especially among nurses themselves and other health care 

providers.

5. Lack of work innovations and creativity work atmospheres.

6. Understaffed departments and high workload on hospital staffs.

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7. Too much of trial and error toward problem solving.

8. Inability of some nurse department's managers to empower their followers.

9. Miscommunication about role of other hospital departments or units within 

staff expectations about potential levels of collaboration and support.

10. Too much duplication of and not up to date in­services education department 

courses, each course doesn’t always need, it already presented previously.

11. Overlapping duties of nursing staffs.

12. Insufficient rewards and recognition for nurse's staff.

13.  Centralized structure of hospital administration.

14.  Lack of visibility and transparency regarding to inappropriate behaviors.  

15.  Lack of practices that depend on evidence­based practice.

16. Lack of conducted statistical studies about the hospital health indicators.

17. Unsatisfied of Chief Nursing Officer educational level.

18. Insufficient accountability regarding medical errors.

19.  High level of job stress among hospital nurses related to understaffed. 

20. Unavailable of ideal standards that required protecting patient's confidentiality 

and privacy such as exceeded the ideal number of patients' bed in a given 

room.

21. High nurse­patient ratio.

22. Weak of guard protection security hospital system, that could increase the 

chance of workplace Violence.

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23. Inability to create professional practice environment.

24. High conflicts rate among hospital employees.

25. Absents of qualified persons capable of leading quality improvement 

programs.

26.  High rate of job dissatisfaction and burnout among nurse's staff.

Opportunities of the hospital

1. Strong relationships and form of collaboration with other governmental 

hospitals and health departments.

2. Location of hospital serves large population, more available connections, and 

resources.

3. Easy of the public transportation to the hospital.

4. Ability to expand in hospital departments and health care services.

5. Opportunity to Create training program and courses in health by collaboration 

with the health faculties that trainee their students in the hospital.

Threats of hospital

1. Low staff income in comparison with other private hospital sector.

2. Unavailable good community outreach initiatives.

3. Lack of technology advancement and updated devices.

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4. The inability to attract and retain nursing staff due to lower salaries.

5. Nurses' staff recruitment process derived from Ministry Of Health.

6. Insufficient of central funding resources.

7. Lack of external fund resources for development of nurses and other 

hospital employees.

8. High nurse salaries in other countries.  

9. Nursing shortage. 

10. Lack of information technology system.

11. Lack of Internet resources (i.e., search engines, online journals).

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