Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Trusting through the waters
Our last class's main discussion was about trust and transparency. I was fortunate enough to come across another blog that was written by someone who feels that in this day in age, open communication is the only thing people do trust. While reading through Vinnet Nayar's post, he pinpointed our generation in the terms of reacting to certain different situations. Trust within a company is easy when everything is going well, or as he puts it "through the calm waters." However, in order to see genuine trust amongest the employees of the company, this same trust needs to be seen through the rough times or the "choppy waters."
Our generation is a fast passed generation in which does not always see the need to wait around to get all the details. Cutting to the chase is the more approachable way to handle situations. He explains that our generation has learned to swift through the information overload we recieve on a daily bases to get to the "heart of the issue." He mentioned transparency was the only way to deal with this generation, and that trust should be the cornerstone of it all. As we look to the news about Toyota and our class discussion comparing this company to Tylenol, we have come to a conclusion that people are all for trust. And when that trust is broken, everything is usually down hill from there unless regained through an action. Everyone wants to feel respected, and everyone wants to be seen as "the good guy and should not be lied to." His ending quote, I feel, really ties it all in with out topic of health care communication. He says, "The only way for a team to succeed is by trusting each other's abilities, action, and talent." While putting this in the health care perspective, I think that when it all comes down to it, these three attributes play a big part in this thing we so heavily look to in any company called trust.
The post: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/nayar/2009/01/trust-through-transparency.html
Our generation is a fast passed generation in which does not always see the need to wait around to get all the details. Cutting to the chase is the more approachable way to handle situations. He explains that our generation has learned to swift through the information overload we recieve on a daily bases to get to the "heart of the issue." He mentioned transparency was the only way to deal with this generation, and that trust should be the cornerstone of it all. As we look to the news about Toyota and our class discussion comparing this company to Tylenol, we have come to a conclusion that people are all for trust. And when that trust is broken, everything is usually down hill from there unless regained through an action. Everyone wants to feel respected, and everyone wants to be seen as "the good guy and should not be lied to." His ending quote, I feel, really ties it all in with out topic of health care communication. He says, "The only way for a team to succeed is by trusting each other's abilities, action, and talent." While putting this in the health care perspective, I think that when it all comes down to it, these three attributes play a big part in this thing we so heavily look to in any company called trust.
The post: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/nayar/2009/01/trust-through-transparency.html
If You See Something, Say Something...That Should Be the Policy..
We are living in a world where it seems that ethical behaviors are not encouraged nor rewarded. Even worse, this article shows that ethical actions are sometimes penalized.
We are all human, and none of us is exempt of making mistakes. The problem arises when we are to proud to recognize our mistakes, and even worse, embracing the defensive side when someone pointed them out to us. While reading this article, I could not help asking myself: “Why would a nurse be penalized for reporting a doctor’s unethical conduct?” I must admit that up to this minute, my question has remained unanswered.
I honestly feel that the Mrs. Mitchell should not be penalized for reporting Dr. Arafiles because, first of all, Dr. Arafiles was not doing the right thing. He has been reprimanded in many occasions for indecencies in his prescriptions ‘writing and his way of performing surgery. Secondly, Dr. Arafiles had restriction in his license. Thirdly, he was sending e-mails messages to patients about herbal-supplements that he was selling on the side.
I to some degree, understand Mr. wiley’s logic when he says that the report was made to the state despite of internal efforts to discipline Dr.Arafiles. However, sometimes it is irrelevant to follow ‘complaint’s hierarchy’, depending on the magnitude of the event that has occurred. For instance, let say I live in the dorm and I was told on day one that any issue should be reported to the Resident Assistant. However, if I start receiving threats from a fellow hall mate, I may feel that that the Dean Assistant may be more capable to deal with this issue, or even the Campus Safety Director, and consequently decide to go to them instead; especially if my R.A has not shown in the past the capability dealing with issues of this nature.
I feel that Nurse Mitchell was just doing the right thing. Nurses should be encouraged to freely report anything that is not in accordance to the hospital’s principles, or anything that violates the right procedures to treat patients.
We are all human, and none of us is exempt of making mistakes. The problem arises when we are to proud to recognize our mistakes, and even worse, embracing the defensive side when someone pointed them out to us. While reading this article, I could not help asking myself: “Why would a nurse be penalized for reporting a doctor’s unethical conduct?” I must admit that up to this minute, my question has remained unanswered.
I honestly feel that the Mrs. Mitchell should not be penalized for reporting Dr. Arafiles because, first of all, Dr. Arafiles was not doing the right thing. He has been reprimanded in many occasions for indecencies in his prescriptions ‘writing and his way of performing surgery. Secondly, Dr. Arafiles had restriction in his license. Thirdly, he was sending e-mails messages to patients about herbal-supplements that he was selling on the side.
I to some degree, understand Mr. wiley’s logic when he says that the report was made to the state despite of internal efforts to discipline Dr.Arafiles. However, sometimes it is irrelevant to follow ‘complaint’s hierarchy’, depending on the magnitude of the event that has occurred. For instance, let say I live in the dorm and I was told on day one that any issue should be reported to the Resident Assistant. However, if I start receiving threats from a fellow hall mate, I may feel that that the Dean Assistant may be more capable to deal with this issue, or even the Campus Safety Director, and consequently decide to go to them instead; especially if my R.A has not shown in the past the capability dealing with issues of this nature.
I feel that Nurse Mitchell was just doing the right thing. Nurses should be encouraged to freely report anything that is not in accordance to the hospital’s principles, or anything that violates the right procedures to treat patients.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Are doctors supposed to be the authority?
After reading the article "Texas Nurse to Stand Trail for Reporting Doctor", I got really frustrated towards the healthcare system. I was actually mad while reading the article. Everything seems so unfair; the doctor was making up excuses to get away from the accusation, and the nurses are the one who got blamed by the public.
Forget about all those laws and obligations; just being a human being, aren't we taught to do the right acts and report for the wrong acts? And healthcare is related to our lives. One single move can take our lives; everything has to be proper and followed the rules. A lot of dead people can be saved if physicans did not make those little mistakes.
Maybe for those physicans, we are merely their "clients" or "tasks"; however, they ought to remind themselves that they are the ones who are controlling our lives. Besides, if anyone realizes there is something wrong going on, he or she has the responsibility to say it out. Keep slient is equal to helping the offender.
Forget about all those laws and obligations; just being a human being, aren't we taught to do the right acts and report for the wrong acts? And healthcare is related to our lives. One single move can take our lives; everything has to be proper and followed the rules. A lot of dead people can be saved if physicans did not make those little mistakes.
Maybe for those physicans, we are merely their "clients" or "tasks"; however, they ought to remind themselves that they are the ones who are controlling our lives. Besides, if anyone realizes there is something wrong going on, he or she has the responsibility to say it out. Keep slient is equal to helping the offender.
At Every Corner There's a Bias
The article “Nurse to Stand Trial for Reporting” in the New York times was fascinating. The different types of relationships and the communication within them are very evident throughout the entire story. Reading this article once through, you become outraged and immediately want to fight on the side of the nurses. You want to say the whole thing is unfair, charges should be dropped, Dr. Arafiles appropriately reprimanded, and that that is the only correct outcome in this situation. But before jumping on this bandwagon one should layout separately all aspects of the story.
Kermit, TX sounds like an incredibly small town where “everybody knows your name”. Being unbiased would be especially hard because there are so many relationships between everyone that objectivity, whether intentionally or not, goes out the window. And small towns also seem to have a mindset of hierarchically social classes. Of course a Sheriff and Doctor are going to have a lot of weight and be friends in such a community, look at their professions.
Second of all, let's look at the hierarchically system within the hospital. Doctors are above nurses, plain and simply. Even if the nurse is an administrative nurse. It also seems that when healthcare providers, especially nursing homes, have troubles the answer is to get rid of current administration and hire new ones. It should be of little surprise that the administrative nurse is the only one still be charged.
Because whistle blowing is a problem but necessity of ethical working conditions, laws are put in place to protect these people. Many, however, still feel the negative repercussions of trying to do the right thing. The fact that the nurses knew they would probably get fired for their jobs for writing the letter shows they understood risk of what they were doing but felt action needed to be taken despite the consequences.
Finally, let's not forget that Dr. Arafiles was from the Philippines and did some training there. Foreign doctors automatically have a prejudice against them when they start practicing in the states, no matter how qualified they may or may not be.
So what do I think? Well after my initial rolling of the eyes accompanied with a “that's typical” under my breath I reread the article. I think that for a case like this the investigation and punishments of the parties should have been handled by an objective third party from out of town. I also think its pretty fishy to have a nurse quit because of a doctors practices, have another complain internally about the problems, and then finally a letter being written to outside authorities and all on a doctor who was hired with restrictions on his license and it was known had done procedures that were not considered appropriate for those types of injuries. Its not like these complaints from the nurses would be the first questionable items to appear associated with Dr. Arafiles name.
I also think that Mr. Wiley may have been dragging his feet about handling the internal complaints. No one had died or been further seriously injured so no lawsuit to the hospital seemed to be on the horizon. Also I would assume Mr. Wiley would find it much easier to hire another nurse rather than find a new doctor in such a location as Kermit, TX. And its possible it would seem like just another administrative complaint from the grunt workers about the gods of the hospital.
By the end of my third read through I wondered why it is that so much invesitgation is being done on the nurse. Why isn't more investigation being done on the doctor. Wouldn't investigation on Dr. Arafiles tell you whether or not the nurses complaints against the doctor were legitimate and carried a credible threat to the patients? If the nurses complaints came up false or of an inappropriate magnitude, well yes, than they should be punished appropriately. But if an investigation shows Dr. Arafiles indeed is not correctly practicing medicine that he should be the one appropriately punished. Why is all the focus, positive and negative on what the nurses doing before any attention is paid to what Dr. Arafiles is doing?
Kermit, TX sounds like an incredibly small town where “everybody knows your name”. Being unbiased would be especially hard because there are so many relationships between everyone that objectivity, whether intentionally or not, goes out the window. And small towns also seem to have a mindset of hierarchically social classes. Of course a Sheriff and Doctor are going to have a lot of weight and be friends in such a community, look at their professions.
Second of all, let's look at the hierarchically system within the hospital. Doctors are above nurses, plain and simply. Even if the nurse is an administrative nurse. It also seems that when healthcare providers, especially nursing homes, have troubles the answer is to get rid of current administration and hire new ones. It should be of little surprise that the administrative nurse is the only one still be charged.
Because whistle blowing is a problem but necessity of ethical working conditions, laws are put in place to protect these people. Many, however, still feel the negative repercussions of trying to do the right thing. The fact that the nurses knew they would probably get fired for their jobs for writing the letter shows they understood risk of what they were doing but felt action needed to be taken despite the consequences.
Finally, let's not forget that Dr. Arafiles was from the Philippines and did some training there. Foreign doctors automatically have a prejudice against them when they start practicing in the states, no matter how qualified they may or may not be.
So what do I think? Well after my initial rolling of the eyes accompanied with a “that's typical” under my breath I reread the article. I think that for a case like this the investigation and punishments of the parties should have been handled by an objective third party from out of town. I also think its pretty fishy to have a nurse quit because of a doctors practices, have another complain internally about the problems, and then finally a letter being written to outside authorities and all on a doctor who was hired with restrictions on his license and it was known had done procedures that were not considered appropriate for those types of injuries. Its not like these complaints from the nurses would be the first questionable items to appear associated with Dr. Arafiles name.
I also think that Mr. Wiley may have been dragging his feet about handling the internal complaints. No one had died or been further seriously injured so no lawsuit to the hospital seemed to be on the horizon. Also I would assume Mr. Wiley would find it much easier to hire another nurse rather than find a new doctor in such a location as Kermit, TX. And its possible it would seem like just another administrative complaint from the grunt workers about the gods of the hospital.
By the end of my third read through I wondered why it is that so much invesitgation is being done on the nurse. Why isn't more investigation being done on the doctor. Wouldn't investigation on Dr. Arafiles tell you whether or not the nurses complaints against the doctor were legitimate and carried a credible threat to the patients? If the nurses complaints came up false or of an inappropriate magnitude, well yes, than they should be punished appropriately. But if an investigation shows Dr. Arafiles indeed is not correctly practicing medicine that he should be the one appropriately punished. Why is all the focus, positive and negative on what the nurses doing before any attention is paid to what Dr. Arafiles is doing?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Discussion Topics For 2/9/2010
Tonight's discussion topics:
2/19/2010 blog assignment: Pick one unique population and discuss how culture, gender, ethnicity, religious and/or geography will affect conceptions of health and health care communication. (Note: this should be longer than the standard 2 paragraphs!)
- Blog post reviews and discussion.
- Bookmarking links and discussion.
- Trust and transparency as key issues in communication, as exemplified by Toyota specifically, and the financial services industry in general. Trust is hard-won over decades and can be lost in one crisis...lessons for healthcare communication.
- Schiavo says health care communication is "audience centered, research based, multidisciplinary, strategic, process oriented, cost-effective, creative in support of strategy, audience and media-specific, relationship-building, and aimed at behavorial or social change. Think...consider...discuss.
- Cultural, gender, ethnic, religious and geographical influences on health care communication and conceptions of health. How does who we are affect what we think, say and do?
2/19/2010 blog assignment: Pick one unique population and discuss how culture, gender, ethnicity, religious and/or geography will affect conceptions of health and health care communication. (Note: this should be longer than the standard 2 paragraphs!)
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