1. Analyze the case study for potential issues for members of the healthcare team from office conflict. Contrast the potential effects for each member of the healthcare team based upon the required readings from the week. Discuss the potential ethical and legal implications for each of the following practice members:

Effective communication is an important part of any healthcare team, it provides a strong relationship between team members. When communication breakdown occurs between team members, it not only affects the workflow but also patient care. In the healthcare field, poor communication can result in medical errors that can cause delays in treatment for patients (Bari, Khan, & Rathore, 2016). In this situation, a communication breakdown between team members due to conflict could cause a medical error for this patient with low blood pressure. The conflict between employees can interfere with the workplace atmosphere and addressing conflict may be difficult but must be done to prevent any legal or ethical dilemmas.

Medical assistant (MA):

The MA failed to inform the nurse practitioner of this patient’s low blood pressure because of a conflict that happens between her and another employee. Unfortunately, this was neglect from the MA and she failed to maintain her ethical principle of beneficence, her duty to do good for her patients. This action from the MA could impact the patient’s safety can potentially harm the patient in the long run. This MA allowed her conflict to interfere with her work responsibility which could place the practice into a potential lawsuit for negligence or malpractice.

Nurse Practitioner (NP):

As a nurse practitioner, we are ultimately responsible for the patient’s wellbeing and care, regardless of not being the one who took their vitals. The MA and the other staff member were completely out of line for having a heated argument in the patient care area. Even though the NP is new at this practice, we should set an example of respectable behavior and lead by example. This scenario placed the nurse practitioner in an ethical and legal dilemma and could be included in a malpractice lawsuit if the patient was serious harm.

Medical Director:

The medical director is responsible for the practice as a whole, this includes all of the ethical and legal issues for the employees and patients. A medical director is usually a physician who helps to guide the healthcare organization. This medical director failed their ethical principles by allowing conflict among staff members to continue for this long. The NP has been here for only 3 months and has witnessed several staff members engaging in arguments with each other. We can only assume that this behavior has been going on long before the NP started at this practice and these employees feel comfortable enough to argue in the patient care area. This behavior between the staff has a negative influence on the practice as a whole, this includes patient safety. The medical director would be involved in a potential lawsuit between the patient and the practice even though they were not involved in direct patient care.

Practice:

To be a successful practice, everyone should work together as a whole instead of working against each other. Every organization deals with conflict among staff but arguing is not the correct way to deal with it. The of the key elements for ethical practice is working in a team, providing quality care, and keeping patient safety are a priority (Hamid, Kanwal, Bajwa, Khalid, Mubarak, 2016). This practice could be implicated in a malpractice lawsuit if the patient was harmed in the delay of diagnosing and treating their low blood pressure.

1. What strategies would you implement to prevent further episodes of potentially dangerous patient outcomes?

Unfortunately, this scenario can happen not only in primary care offices but also in other areas in the healthcare field. This situation should never happen at work and especially in the patient care area. Any conflicts, concerns, or issues should be addressed in a non-patient care area after all duties are complete (Bruijl, 2018). Staff members should be reminded of the importance of respecting each other and effective communication. Research has shown that effective communication and teamwork helps to promote patient safety (Gluyas, 2015). This patient’s low blood pressure could cause them serious harm due to delaying potential life-threatening treatment. A strategy that I would set into place, would be, a standardized treatment tool that the MA would use for every patient and would hand off to the NP right after seeing the patient. On that treatment, the tool would be normal and abnormal vitals and labs. Hopefully, by visually seeing normal vs. abnormal the MA would report this critical information right away.

1. What leadership qualities would you apply to effect positive change in the practice? Focus on the culture of the practice.

The leadership quality that I would focus on would be to change the culture of this practice by motivation and encouragement. Most of this practice’s employees have been working together for a long time, over the years they may have forgotten what teamwork looks like. Some may have lost their passion, emotionally exhausted, or just burnout. This happens all the time in the healthcare field. As the new nurse practitioner that is entering this practice, I would think of ways to engage the employees in positive ways. A leader with strong leadership skills can easily motivate and influences employees to promote change within the organization (Hao, Moo & Yazdanifard, Assc. Prof. Dr. Rashad, 2015). A few examples would be having a group outing, showing gratitude to ones that go above and beyond for patients, and listing. A good way to decompress from a stressful environment would be to have fun, organizing a group outing can lead to a positive attitude. Appreciating your team goes a long way, this could boost their morale and increase employee satisfaction. As a leader, one important skill that can help others would be to listen. This helps to open up communication just by hearing and understanding them and some of the issues could get resolved between them.

Bari, A., Khan, R. A., & Rathore, A. W. (2016). Medical errors; causes, consequences, emotional response, and resulting behavioral change. Pakistan journal of medical sciences, 32(3), 523–528. doi:10.12669/pjms.323.9701

Bruijl, G. H., (2018). The Relevance of Porter’s Five Forces in Today’s Innovative and Changing Business Environment. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3192207 (Links to an external site.)

Gluyas, H. (2015). Effective communication and teamwork promote patient safety. Nurs Stand. 5;29(49): 50-57. doi: 10.7748/ns.29.49.50.e10042 (Links to an external site.)

Hamid, S., Kanwal, R., Bajwa, M.H., Khalid, S., Mubarak, H. (2016). Ethical issues faced by nurses during nursing practice in district Layyah, Pakistan. Diversity and Equality in Health Care. 13(4). 302-308.

Hao, Moo & Yazdanifard, Assc. Prof. Dr. Rashad. (2015). How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in Organizations through Improvement and Innovation. Global Journal of Management and Business Research (A). 15. 1-6.