Professionalism in the Workplace
Courtney Dennis
Med/Surg Four
August 5, 2015
Cathy Westberry
Professionalism in the workplace has many different aspects to be deciphered. There more than likely will come a time in your career that you witness or experience unprofessional behavior, if you haven’t already. Some of the aspects can be looked at as pieces of a puzzle. They all fit together, and need one another to complete the puzzle, or professional workplace. Every employee should be free from discrimination, judgment, negative attitudes, have superior communication, and have The first, not in importance, that would start the puzzle of professionalism would be discrimination. This means the employee is not accepted in a way
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In order to give excellent service in anything you do, your team must have a great sense of communication. This means there will be less error in work. Think about this, you are in report, about to go on shift, and you haven’t been told that your patient in room 201 has had a blood glucose reading of 215, you don’t realize they need coverage since the last nurse didn’t mention anything. What would then happen to your patient? They would be at an increased risk for hyperglycemia and possible further complications. This is only one extreme example of how effective communication can be utilized for patient safety. According to Davis (2014), “principle categories of evaluation include teamwork, communication, mutual performance monitoring, maintenance of standards and guidelines, task management, procedural skill, and equipment management.” This statement was pulled from an article about CCATT, critical care air transport team, missions in the Air Force, and focused on the importance of communicating within your care team. Davis (2014), showed important statistical information that expresses something called “task saturation” which is best explained as the amount of activity happening in the critical treatment times. There was a correlation in positive results when there was better equipment management during the crisis events that took place. The greatest ratio for …show more content…
Many nurses become anxious from the stress and high level of demand they are meant to keep up with. There may also be aggression linked from patient to nurse, nurse to doctor (aka horizontal aggression), doctor to patient, and even the family in the mix, which Edward (2014) had written about. According to Edward (2014), studies found that the medical staff to be involved in the workplace aggression would be the new, inexperienced nurses on the floor, and student nurses were the most targeted. They are always under supervision, and haven’t developed a relationship with other staff, and also need to develop rapport with everybody. That is a major stressor in figuring out if you are going to work out in a new place, doing new skills, and achieving new goals. Edwards (2014) identifies verbal and physical aggression in the workplace. Verbal aggression is the most common, which involved being yelled at, cursed at, and being intimidated. For physical aggression, emergency department nurses are expected to see this most often than other nursing settings. If the nurse remains unaware of these occurrences, and decides to hold in feelings toward this type of abuse the nurse is taking on, then they are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety in their career. The worst thought would be if the symptoms of this depression and anxiety, it may push you into a
Communication in the operating room is very important. If surgeons and nurses are not communicating effectively it can directly affect the quality of patient care and safety. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, which estimated the fifth leading cause of death in hospitals in the United States was due to health care errors (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, Freida, 2016). To help reduce these errors, effective communication needs to be exercised throughout health care.
Finally, it will explain the importance of ethics in communication and how patient safety is influenced by good or bad team communication. The first method of communication is mutual respect. The patient and clinician have a partnership based on trust. The patient has respect for the clinician 's experience and the clinician has respect for the patient 's wishes, needs, concerns and builds on past experience to meet immediate needs. (Paget, 2011).
“While working at a hospital as a Registered nurse, I was being bullied every day at work I became withdrawn, severely depressed, I would break down and cry every day after work. It was a nightmare,” explained Nurse Jackie. Horizontal bullying should not be neglected it is a life-threatening problem affecting the healthcare. Nurse to nurse bullying in the workplace can have an impact on new nurses, the treatment of the patients, and lack of job satisfaction. Imagine being a nurse and additionally feeling nervous about taking care of a challenging patient or meticulously achieving all of the medical records.
Professionalism whether in the workplace or an academic setting can easily be deemed comparable. Both settings necessitate the adherence to a set of values. These values may be established through a formally agreed upon code of conduct as exemplified in a work or student handbook or through the informal expectations of colleagues, clients, professors, or peers. The fundamental standards of professionalism include having respect for yourself, your colleagues, the material you are learning and your professors. There are many characteristics that contribute to being professional.
This will be discussed in the context of patient-centred care, healthcare team communication, and documentation . One factor that influences patient safety through communicating effectively is patient-centred care. Patient-centred care is a holistic healthcare approach that acknowledges patients and their families as active participants and contributors in their care because of their knowledge and experiences regarding their condition, which applies regardless of age and healthcare setting (Institute for Patient- and Family- Centred Care, as cited in Levett-Jones, Gilligan, Outram & Horton, 2014). Furthermore, patient-centred care places value on "empathy, dignity, autonomy, respect, choice, transparency, and a desire to help individuals lead the life they want" (Levett-Jones et al., 2014, p. 15).
Failing in service-user safety can sometimes be attributed to communication failure, however communication is one of the most important tools in preventing such failures. The ability to communicate effectively as a team stems from understanding the various professions in the team (Gluyas & Morrison, 2013). Understanding the various roles allows for an insight into how the healthcare system links together and the part each roles plays in provision of care. Additionally it aides in building trust and respect amongst team members (Gluyas & Morrison, 2013). This in turn can be linked to improved service-user safety, because it allows for role relation and see their part in the service-user care pathway.
Unfortunately, not all health care workers keep a professional attitude in the workplace. This week, I experienced a lot of nonprofessional conversations. I believe it is unprofessional to be gossiping and laughing about patients at the nurses ' stations. It was disappointing to see this happen on the unit especially from the rest of the team involved in surgery or even therapy. Professionalism is not just in attitude of conversations but also in appearance.
Many think that bullying is an issue that occurs more often with minors in a school setting, but horizontal violence in nursing negates this thought. Horizontal violence in nursing is best defined as “bullying that occurs between coworkers” (Granstra, 2015). This bullying cannot only negatively affect seasoned nurses, but also new graduate nurses that may lack confidence in their abilities as they are new to the field. Consequentially, this can
Being a nurse, comes a great reward and unlimited enhancement of career ladders and promotion. An organizations true values to their nurses is that they encourage everyone to expand their skills and capabilities. One example is encouraging to be a resource nurse. An interview of a resource nurse, where she elaborated the meaning of being a professional nurse, an advocate for patients and families, and steward of the health care system. What is your role as a health care team member?
Professionalism as Bartollas and Siegel define it “refers to a set of character strengths and personal values directed at providing the highest quality service to others in the workplace, both colleagues and clients” (2013). In the field of corrections, professionalism affects not only those working in the facility or those imprisoned within its walls, but the families of inmates and officers /correctional staff, the local community, and the relationships within the law enforcement community as well. As discussed in the text, there are several areas in which professionalism in the field of corrections must address to effectively maintain if’s facilities. While there have been significant gains in recent years, there are still areas which continue
In order to encompass a good working environment, professionalism is very important. Professionalism is a characteristic of productive workplace. In the profession of nursing, each nurse has to display a certain degree of respect and responsibilities to meet the standard values of caring. Professionalism is critical in health care.
Violence against healthcare providers is a significant problem that has been receiving growing attention. Incidents of workplace violence are experienced by nurses and physicians on a day-to-day basis, especially in emergency departments. The corollary of this phenomenon has become a significant matter due to the psychological stress it is placing on healthcare providers, hence affecting their efficiency and productivity. We may often undermine the consequences of workplace violence, but studies show that it may cause distress, apathy, rage, disappointment, helplessness, anxiety, self-doubt, and insecurity of healthcare workers. (Öztunç 360-365)Hence, their entire job performance is decreased and absenteeism is increased.
When looking at the function of professional nursing, the attitude, experiences, as well as factors such as demographics, social class, education, and values, can determine how the nurse will view violence in the workplace. These factors that have contributed to the development of the professional nurse can also determine how the nurse views and even reacts to workplace violence and aggression towards them. The qualities of the professional nurse and their background can determine how the human behavior from the patient is viewed and can lead to de-escalation or escalation of violent situations. The behavior of the patient can include cooperation, calmness, anxiety, aggression, or anger. Behaviors of aggression, anger, frustration, and acts of intimidation when patients are experiencing an illness can exacerbate stressful situations which can turn violent.
How does poor communication impact on patient safety? Poor communication can lead to injuries and complications through miscommunications and factors that impacts on the quality of care being delivered. Reduced team cohesion which occurs with poor communication is particularly detrimental to patients with chronic conditions as they are effectively treated with different health care professionals.
Information regarding the reports such as research limitations, level of evidence, research method and design are included in the discussion and implications of nursing. The literature review found that nurse on nurse bullying does indeed effect nurses in a physical and emotional way as well as effecting the adequacy of patient care. Effects of Horizontal Violence in the Workplace on Nurses and Patient Care Introduction Nurses spend approximately 12 hours a day 3-4 times a week working in either a hospital, clinic, or some sort