Managing Disruptive Behaviors in Healthcare
Some of our most technically competent healthcare workers can exhibit behaviors that are disruptive, representing severe consequences including threats to quality of care and patient safety.
Great Technical Skills Don't Mix With Uncivil Behaviors
Some of our most technically competent employees (at all levels including those of senior rank) can exhibit behaviors that are disruptive. These are the employees who have all of the skills and talent you want, but whose attitudes and issues drain your energy, contribute to creating a toxic environment and drive away your high performers. Serious enough in non-life-threatening industries, disruptive behaviors by healthcare professionals represent severe consequences including threats to quality of care and patient safety.
The Healthcare Environment is Different
As in any industry, addressing behavior based issues can be a challenge. Difficult to quantify, qualify and describe yet pervasive and destructive. Healthcare is a high pressure high stakes life and death environment. It's easy to see how employees can fall prey to uncivil behavior and how it can escalate when it goes unchecked.
This Guide offers:
- Real-life examples of disruptive behaviors
- Ideas on when and how to intervene; before one time incidents turn into persistent patterns
- Advice on how to comply with the Joint Commission's Standards on Managing Disruptive Behaviors in Healthcare