Critical Decision Making For Providers

Critical Decision Making for Providers

According to Hughes (2008), “quality care is safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, and equitable” para 5. Effective leaders in healthcare must be able to process and analyze information to allow for critical thinking and decision making that promotes a culture supporting ongoing development (Benner, Hughes & Sutphen, 2008). The purpose of this paper will explore a given scenario of hospital employee Mike, the consequences of his actions on patient safety, work load of employees and the financial and legal risks of the hospital. In addition, the author will examine the strategies to promote critical thinking and moral courage that will ensure quality and safe care for all patients.

Scenario

Mike is a lab technician at the local hospital. He is a husband and new father and maintaining his job is essential for his family as it is their sole source of income. Mike has had past difficulty in being on time for work and his supervisor has notified him that if he is late one more time he will risk termination. A traffic accident has delayed Mike’s arrival to work, resulting in his concern for clocking in on time. On arriving to work Mike notices as spill on the floor and faces a dilemma to initiate the clean-up of the spill or run the risk of clocking in late and potentially losing his job. Mike decides to leave the spill and go straight to his time clock, however later in his shift he discovers that a woman was injured as a result of a fall resulting from the spill (Critical Decision Making for Providers, 2015).

Consequences of Mikes Actions.

The scenario presents a plethora of questions for the employee and the health care leader regarding the moral courage needed to d...

... middle of paper ...

...xpressing moral courage for doing the right thing without fear of personal risk (LaSala & Bjarnason, 2010).

Conclusion

According to Huber (2014) leadership is “a process of influencing the behavior of either an individual or a group, regardless of the reason, in an effort to achieve goals in a given situation.” p.4. Patient safety is an ongoing concern that is often at the center of conflict for many healthcare workers. The ability to recognize and react to quality or safety issues are too often impacted by personal fears of harassment, retaliation, job termination or lack of peer or leadership support. (LaSala & Bjarnason, 2010). Healthcare leaders have the ability to influence quality improvement activities for the overall organization as well as supporting a just culture that promotes individuals to do what is right for their patients (Sammer & James, 2011).