Different scholars have pinpointed the negative effects of disruptive behaviors within the healthcare setting. According to Lachman (2014), some of the negative outcomes that disruptive behaviors foster include poor patient satisfaction, medical errors and to the extreme, increased medical costs. In his article, Lachman (2014) explores the ethical debate that these disruptive behaviors raise. He pays particular attention to bullying, incivility as well as horizontal/lateral violence as the main disruptive behaviors evident within the healthcare setting. Through this article, Lachman (2014) makes it clear that disruptive behavior in healthcare is an important issue which if not addressed, will have serious ethical implications for both individual nurses and healthcare organizations.
Wyatt (2013) states that a significant number of care providers usually uphold high standards of professionalism when it comes to their behavior. However, he is quick to point out that a small number do not bother to uphold professionalism and thereby engage in disruptive behavior. Wyatt (2013) opines that while different healthcare practitioners such as pharmacists and nurses might display disruptive behavior, such behavior when expressed by doctors is responsible for most of the problems. Wyatt (2013) goes ahead to highlight some of the reasons why it is important to address disruptive behaviors in health care. He points out that disruptive behaviors may end up harming patients, a turn of events that would be against the ethical responsibilities of health care practitioners. Additionally, disruptive behavior is said to pose a significantly high litigation risk for both, creates a difficult work environment and results in poor satisfaction among patients.
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In their analysis of disruptive behaviors in emergency departments, Maddineshat, Rosenstein, Akaberi and Tabatabaeichehr (2016) point out that these behaviors usually create many problems in the workplace. They reiterate that the adverse consequences that often follow disruptive behaviors have seen healthcare institutions come up with strategies aimed at improving staff behavior. According to Maddineshat et al (2016), healthcare professionals play a significant role in determining patient outcomes and engaging in disruptive behaviors make it impossible for the desired patient outcomes to the achieved. This will not only paint the practitioners involved in bad light, but the whole institution might also suffer reputational damages. Apart from negatively affecting the quality of care, disruptive behaviors are also said to negatively affect the collaboration efforts among medical practitioners and the relationships among the medical staff ( Maddineshat et al., 2016).
The negative effect of disruptive behavior on patient safety is also highlighted by Porto (2016). He argues that health care practitioners who are prone to disruptive behaviors are likely to overlook key safety concerns when attending to patients. Additionally, patients will tend to avoid those practitioners who come out as unfriendly even when they are in dire need of medical attention. Disruptive behavior is also linked to other hidden costs such as lowered productivity of the medical teams involved, wastage of administrative time and increased resistance to change (Porto, 2016). These hidden costs come with a number of ethical challenges including the inability of practitioners and institutions to provide quality and satisfactory care and the limited ability of hospital administration to promote professionalism.
In conclusion, disruptive behavior in health care has serious ethical implications. Some of the negative outcomes that disruptive behaviors foster include poor patient satisfaction, medical errors and to the extreme, increased medical costs. By creating an environment that makes it hard for desired patient outcomes to be attained, disruptive behaviors, as practiced by medical practitioners, goes against the professional and ethical standards that all practitioners are supposed to follow. As such, disruptive behaviors are a significant barrier to maintenance of professionalism in healthcare.
References
Lachman, V. D. (2014). Ethical issues in the disruptive behaviors of incivility, bullying, and horizontal/lateral violence. Medsurg nursing , 23 (1), 56.
Maddineshat, M., Rosenstein, A. H., Akaberi, A., & Tabatabaeichehr, M. (2016). Disruptive behaviors in an emergency department: the perspective of physicians and nurses. Journal of Caring Sciences , 5 (3), 241.
Porto, G. (2016). Disruptive Clinician Behavior: A Persistent Threat to Patient Safety . Psqh.com . Retrieved from http://www.psqh.com/julaug06/disruptive.html
Wyatt, R. (2013). Revisiting disruptive and inappropriate behavior: Five years after standards introduced | Joint Commission . Jointcommission.org . Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/jc_physician_blog/revisiting_disruptive_and_inappropriate_behavior/
