Attitude in the Workplace Essay Example

about the company, the product, are already formed.

It is easy for a manager to lay down a set of rules or guidelines that govern their department. It is another thing entirely to ensure that those rules are followed completely and that quality healthcare is delivered. Ideally, if this was a perfect world, set procedures would be followed to the letter and every department in the health care profession would function perfectly. Unfortunately this is not the case for one specific reason: human behavior. We are not robots. Of all the outside factors that influence today's health care system, human behavior is the single most condition that can't be one hundred-percent predicted and charted. This particular point is not isolated to one particular department or hierarchy. It affects every level of the health care system:

The administrative assistant who is normally very proficient at her work had to deal with a crying newborn last night. Because she wasn't alert at her job the next morning, a requisition got missed and supplies for the emergency ward weren't ordered.

The nurse who is going through a nasty divorce and has been fielding phone calls from her ex-husband's lawyer, misses a plugged catheter on a patient under her care. The patient suffers several hours until the error is discovered on the next shift.

The housekeeper, who decides that although a clean-up in Room 203 was requested of him, decides that his shift is over in 10 minutes and has to pick up his kids from school. He figures 'Someone will clean it up'.

The manager who gets passed on for promotion decides that

he won't correct an error made by his colleague, for nothing more than simple spite.

All these examples show how human behavior can negatively impact a workplace. Conversely, a positive impact can also be achieved through an individual's behavior:

A new health-care aide who has dedicated herself to her profession, goes the extra mile to ensure that her patient's hair is combed and that she looks presentable for visiting family.

A senior manager takes a new front-line manager under his wing and mentors him in a new department.

A dedicated nurse who picks up an extended shift because her colleague has fallen ill.

These situations show how human behavior can have a positive impact in the health care profession, or how human behavior can so easily throw a wrench into a well-oiled machine and cause turmoil where there normally would be a well functioning system.