Introduction
In health care, accreditation is a process for assessing the state of health care facilities to track the quality and delivery conditions of health care. Accreditation agencies set predetermined criteria that hospitals and medical clinics must follow. They represent the agencies as credible and reputable organizations that maintain high-quality infrastructure, treatment, and regulatory standards. Accreditations help patients understand health centers’ development, maintenance, and policies. Accreditation affects care facilities in different ways: it shapes standards and protocols of care, promotes the professionalism of the staff, and develops a system of relationships with patients. The most critical criterion on which accreditation agencies measure health centers is quality outcomes. For nurses, accreditation is a factor in stimulating improvements in the quality of care by maintaining a leadership position.
Analysis
Accreditation is a process for evaluating nursing and any hospital programs: programs must be relevant and provide evidence-based information for patients and staff. Getting accreditation is essential for hospitals to develop patient networks, increase budgets, and expand treatment and clinical research capabilities. Frank et al. (2020) points out that accreditation improve the quality of nursing care. Nurses can manage skills in educational and professional environments, accumulating knowledge for practice. Nurses are willing to take responsibility for improving the quality of care if they receive up-to-date information during their education. In addition, Hussein et al. (2021) found that adherence to accreditation standards improves hospital functioning. Nurses have insight into how to improve their performance and patient safety, thereby taking an active role.
The hospital accreditation system can impact improving the quality of patient care. Mosadeghard (2020) points out that it motivates staff to implement clinical protocols and increases accountability. Consequently, nurses are responsible for their actions, acting as leaders for themselves and the team, developing together. Autonomy and leadership must go hand in hand in nursing activities. Otherwise, it can lead to a breakdown in the relationship between each other and reduce the effectiveness of teams. At the same time, Alshamsi et al. (2020) are concerned that staff is stressed during accreditation. Pressuring policies from accreditation centers results in medical staff (primarily nurses) needing more support to reach accreditation levels, and their productivity drops. Psychological stress can reduce the effectiveness of accreditation, so nurses’ comfort with the assessment should be increased.
Accreditation impacts nurses’ perceptions of their work and efforts to improve the quality of care. Trisno et al. (2020) found that nurses are much more aware of their obligations when accredited, so they tend to express a more leadership and organized stance on quality of care. In this case, the nurses’ perception of their role is an essential factor in encouraging the quality of care to improve. It is related to why nurses pursue a professional career and strive to develop it. In addition, de Oliveira et al. (2019) discovered that this may increase professional satisfaction. Nurses are attuned to working toward a high level of appreciation for their work and are, therefore, willing to take responsibility for more complex and challenging tasks. The quality of services improves because a sense of responsibility builds relationships with patients and staff, uniting efforts to heal the disease.
Implementing accreditation may also be associated with showing leadership qualities in the team among nurses. Algunmeeyn and Mrayyan (2022) believe that accreditation positively impacts a hospital if nurses are professionally active in leadership and are willing to evolve to improve the quality of care. In addition, cooperation and communication factors between nurses and patients should also be considered, which positively impacts the quality of care. Leadership among nurses can develop through accreditation if upper management provides transparent work policies (Batista et al., 2021). Nurses will go for leadership if the hospital environment demonstrates openness and a willingness to listen to their opinions on quality improvement.
Conclusion
Thus, hospital accreditation enhances the leadership qualities of nurses to the quality of care. It is reflected in the nurses’ willingness to take on team management responsibilities, improve their skills and develop communication within the hospital. In addition, the effect of accreditation is noticeable in the professional satisfaction of the nurses, which encourages them to show leadership behavior and take responsibility for complex cases. Nurses are aware of their obligations and are more likely to show leadership to meet the status of an accredited hospital. Despite concerns that nurses may feel psychological pressure from the accreditation process, the transparent hospital policy positively affects nurses’ willingness to become leaders. Consequently, accreditation empowers nurses to demonstrate leadership behavior in order to improve the quality of health care.
References
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Alshamsi, A. I., Thomson, L., & Santos, A. (2020). What impact does accreditation have on workplaces? A qualitative study to explore the perceptions of healthcare professionals about the process of accreditation. Frontiers in Psychology, 1. Web.
Batista, S. A., Miclos, P. V., Amendola, F., Bernardes, A., & Mohallem, A.G.C. (2021). Authentic leadership, nurse job satisfaction and hospital accreditation: a study in a private hospital network. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 74(2). Web.
de Oliveira, J. L. C., de Magalhães, A. M. M., Bernardes, A., Haddad, M. D. C. F. L., Wolff, L. D. G., Marcon, S. S., & Matsuda, L. M. (2019). Influence of hospital Accreditation on professional satisfaction of the nursing team: Mixed method study [Influência da Acreditação hospitalar na satisfação profissional da equipe de enfermagem: estudo de método misto]. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 27(e3109). Web.
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Hussein, M., Pavlova, M., Ghalwash, M., & Groot, W. (2021). The impact of hospital accreditation on the quality of healthcare: a systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1057. Web.
Mosadeghard, A. M. (2020). Hospital accreditation: The good, the bad, and the ugly. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 14(10, 1-5. Web.
Trisno, T., Putra, A. P., & Purwanza, S. W. (2020). The impact of hospital accreditation on nurses’ perceptions of quality of care? Jurnal NERS, 14(3), 408-412. Web.