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Worthwhile Read: Culture of Disrespect

So there’s this: a truly fascinating article in yesterday’s NY Times, In a Culture of Disrespect, Patients Lose Out. The premise of the article, which is inspired by a pair of articles published in a 2012 issue of Academic Medicine (Part I and Part II, full text), can be gleaned from this statement:

When we tolerate a culture of disrespect, we aren’t just being insensitive, or obtuse, or lazy, or enabling. We’re in fact violating the first commandment of medicine. How can we stand idly by when our casual acceptance of disrespect is causing the same harm to our patients as medication errors, surgical mistakes, handoff lapses and missed lab results?

I hadn’t seen these articles when they were published, but I am so glad to have read them now as we go into our 2nd sustainability course. Because this isn’t only about disrespectful behavior towards patients (which is completely unacceptable by everyone’s standards); it’s also about disrespectful behavior towards colleagues (which isn’t universally seen as unacceptable sadly). It connects the ways behaviors impact outcomes, directly and indirectly, and with the stories I hear from my own colleagues who have staff who are bullying and unprofessional, it’s helpful to have both the documentation that the issue is more impactful than we thought (Part I) and strategies for managing this type of behavior (Part II). While these articles focus on physicians, I have no problem generalizing much of this to nursing, as well. I highly recommend taking the time to read both the Times column and the pair of journal articles. Worthwhile reads, for sure.

1 reply on “Worthwhile Read: Culture of Disrespect”

Thanks for sharing this, Jen- working in the Emergency Department, this attitude was pervasive, and I am speaking more of this attitude towards peers and patients alike- this is a reminder about the consequences of this attitude when we allow it be the baseline-

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