Essay Sample on Financial Governance in Healthcare and Nursing Management

Financial Governance in the health sector

The necessity for change in health services is veritable. The Health Service Executive (HSE) was constituted under the Health Act 2004 as the one body with statutory creditworthy for the handling and bringing of health and individual social services in the Republic of Ireland and its people. As defined in the Health Act, 2004 the role of the Executive is to utilize the resources available to it in the most significant, efficient and effective way to better, advance and protect the health and well-being of the individuals of Ireland (Burns, 2012). The Corporal finance governance refers to the procedures and systems by which organizations or firms manage and control their operations and relate to their stakeholders to manage their entities, attain their targets and missions, and arrive at the essential standards of answerability, properness and wholeness. It is a necessary element in bettering effectiveness and accountability as well as in facilitating receptivity and transparency. Therefore, the HSE has acquired a corporate governance authority in conformity with acceptable practices. The adopted practices in the area of management are known as being evolutionary in quality. The standards require to be responsive to the varying environment and will proceed to develop and germinate (Wood-Ritsatakis & Makara, 2009). The HSE Code of Governance entails some standards, plans, and some procedures that are regarded the minimum standards of best exercise at the moment, it is further known as the theoretical account for the Corporal and Financial Governance of the HSC, Health Service Executive. In the recent times, several reports have been constituted regarding corporate financial governance, and has a result of this, more measures of good practices have come up. The HSE has followed all applicable most beneficial practice guidance and will go forward to do so through its timely review of the Code of Governance. The Service Arrangements and Grant Aid accords with the agencies financed by the HSE involve in-depth governance requirements that necessitate companies to be sequential with the HSE Code of Governance (Harvey, 2008).

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The general objective of the Finance Directorate is to give strategic and functional financial aid and advice to the different streams of the Health Service Executive in meeting the organizational objectives, hence, providing high quality, incorporated health and individual social services. The concerns of the financial squad are to direct the finances of the HSE, to bear facilitated accountability and value for funding, to formulate a patterned Financial leading fabric for the HSE. Internal Auditing is accountable for making sure that a curriculum program of auditing work is followed up yearly throughout the HSE. The role of this work is to allow for assurance which commands and process are operated in concern with the right pattern and with the reserved rules. The HSE Auditing Commission watches the job of the Auditing Directorate. The National Cancer Control Programme, NCCP regulates the functions of the National Cancer Strategy. It encourages that all Cancer Centres need to be linked together in a Managed Cancer Control Networks and to allocate every of the HSEs four areas with ample and self-effectiveness of services in about the most familiar types of cancer diseases (Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2004.

Financial governance team should ensure that all operation in the health sector are well financed and budgeted for, in every year. It will allow the Republic of Ireland manage the good-being of its people and reduce cost treatment and risk management. Among the key departments that should be considered most are as follows. First, the Human Resource Management; the HR Directorate should give particular practice to the services affirming line managers to develop an engaged, prompted and quenched work drive (Leahy,2011). Specified corporate HR allows for bearing in the following sections: workers Relations, operations management and handling Information, recruiting and recruiter branding, succession management, leadership growth and shared out services. Secondly, Communications Directorate, which is accountable for implementing and directing the inner and public communication openings and giving consultancy guidance and contribute to staff within the organization. Also, the family and children services Directorate which ensure the bearing of some services subjected to the optimum care and preserving the families and children. A variety of services should be financed and are under the HSE. The services include early years services for poor and homeless young people, substitute care, search and reuniting services, and mental services for children from various families (Dunham-Taylor, 2010). Lastly, integrated services directorate which is controlled by national directors whose particular areas of answerability are: rearrangement of acute hospitals, management of finance and performance that involves areas of care groups, pre-hospital care, and primary care teams. Its fundamental purpose is to allow for quality services, long stay care, mental health, children care, emergency services, rehabilitation of behavior, social works care, among others; are linked, and the employees who provide them are doing their job well together in teams. Financial governance ensures responsibility for bearing services and is devolved from the state level to four geographic distinctive areas led by four regional leading teams. The regional directors of functions are entirely answerable for social care services and the local health regions (Bateman, 2012).

Part B:

Role of Nurse Manager in Financial Management

In todays healthcare situation the purpose of the nurse manager is far different than it was in several years back. Formerly then, nurse managers were known as head nurses and were creditworthy for directing their section or unit in a much distinguished capacity than it is anticipated in todays health environment (Leahy,2011). Head nurses were initially responsible for giving patient care and running the unit and were always perceived as working supervisors. However, one cannot say that the responsibilities are no longer in practice, rather, they have increased. Nowadays you notice those responsible for overseeing of operations of the same tasks as head nurses have names like nurse managers, service line leaders, directors, coordinators, with each depending on the orientation of the hospital they are operating in. Nurse managers control the biggest part of a hospital labor force budget, in some instances, the vast section of the general budget in the hospitals.The efficiency of directing this responsibility can shape the difference between an organizations financial turmoil and financial stability (Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2004). The department of nursing always takes ownership of its commercial operation. In so doing, the financial accountability and productivity go high. Safe and standardized financial management contributes to the stability of any hospital in the Republic of Ireland.

The role of budgeting in any organization is crucial in some ways. In hospitals, nurse managers undertake this role in association with overall financial controllers. The following are roles of a nurse manager in financial management. First, orientation planning; the nurse manager is involved in creating a budget that further deviates away from the short run, day-to-day management of the hospital and enhance it to think long-term. Long-term plans are the key goal of budgeting, even though the management of most hospitals find it difficult to meet and succeed in achieving them as highlighted in the budget, which mainly recommends the organization to be competitive and place its financial potential in a situation of improving. Secondly, profitability review; it is not difficult to lose your sense of sight where the hospital is creating most of its finances, during the beat of the day to day operations (Burns, 2012). A nurse aims for a properly structured budget which focuses on the aspects of the hospitals that generate money and utilizes them; it makes nurse managers and the management take into consideration whether it should leave some elements in the budget to the extent or improve other sections. The sections may be within the hospital or a project that is existing outside. In such occasions, all the management team has to agree after considering numeral factors that are significant than those withdrawn from the budget (Harvey, 2007).

A nurse manager also is responsible for the undertaking of performance evaluation. Just like any other hospital, a nurse manager needs to measure the amount of finance spent and the effectiveness of the work done or how the employees are performing in their respective departments. The performance evaluation will help the management determine the work output of the employees, which can be related to their remuneration, promotions and salary appraisal claims. It is through the score evaluation that the nurse manager can propose some funds to be allocated in the budget for promotions, wage assessment and recruitment of new staff in case more workforce is required (Nolan, 2007). The nurse manager will then consult the Human Resource management for the expected changes in the hospital. The human resource as outlined in the policies of HSE is then held responsible for implementing the changes in labor drive. However, the nurse manager helps other nurses set their targets and upon meeting them, they are likely to receive incentives or other bonuses depending on how they are performing. For example, one can be the best employee of the month or best service provider. Also, a nurse manager can make a budget against real reports to provide employees feedback concerning how they are proceeding towards reaching their set goals. This method will determine the financial objectives, through functional goals which can also be included in the budget for improving performance purposes.

Funds allocation is another role that nurse managers undertake in their line of duty. For a budget to be properly prepared, the finance officer should involve the nurse manager in subjecting funds to various receivers who are relied on by the hospital in question. There are some supplies which are well organized by the nurse administrator. It will help accountability and transparency in allocation of funds. The sub-budget drafted by the nurse leader will ease the final budget that is given out by the treasurer of the hospital. It may entail providing monthly or weekly reports of budgetary changes to a supervisor and revise end-of-year information with the finance department or officer and the chief nurse executive, CNE. However, the ability of the nurse leader will enable earlier planning to avoid challenges that may arise due to late planning (HSE National Vision For Change Working Group, 2012). For example, developing a realistic yearly budget for a department or unit that involves revenue, volume, supplies, personnel, and capital equipment.

Planning for cash allocation within the hospital is a fundamental element in any organization. It is because not all the times that a hospital will engage in transactions that do not involve the cash payment. In most hospitals, most services are done on a cash basis. For example, when a patient buys medicines, he or she has to pay in cash. The nurse leader has the duty to oversee all the cash transactions on a daily basis, analyze them with the other staff, then give the final report to the financial officer. It will help a hospital to avoid cases of not being transparent and accountable (Madden, 2011).

The issue of bottleneck analysis is also relevant, and nurse managers are likely to get involved. Every hospital has a bottlen...