Managing People in Hospitals - Essay Example

People Management Abstract I have been working as respiratory therapist in King Fahad hospital in Saudi Arabia. My department was focusing only to provide the care for the mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care units. I’m very much happy with my job and the kind of work I get to do here, during my tenure here at this hospital I came across many incidents which challenged my management skills and tested my know how of the situation many times. Following is one of the incidents of my life at this hospital which was a bit critical one for me as the guy who was victim one of my colleagues and a dear friend. In the case study I’ve explained what exactly happened to him and then how I’d to make sure that he gets proper attention and treatment while maintaining discipline at the workplace. Moreover the guy being from a far off place had no relatives living here so we as friends had to make sure that he is not feeling scarcity of anything emotionally as well as physically. He broke his arm while working and I being his immediate senior had to take care of necessary efforts to be taken in favor of him. Things could have taken a different direction had I not taken immediate steps to control them. Objective: The main objective of this case study is to exhibit my management skills in respect of people management at my work place. The case study describes one of my real life experiences at work place and how I handled various resources and the current condition to tackle the problem in most effective and optimum manner. Settings: The following case is from my experiences at my work place i.e. king Fahad hospital, where I’m working as respiratory therapist and have to manage a staff of 20 people working under me as ward boys and junior pharmacists. The experience is about how I managed a sudden accident that took place in the hospital without disturbing the normal routine. Methodology/sequence of events (Case study): It was a sunny Wednesday morning, when I was walking in the corridor of the hospital to attend one of my patients, while walking I realized I ‘d a stiff back that day and my job demanded lot of mechanical work so it wasn’t any good for me. But my happy go lucky nature and my attitude of taking problems light helped me again that day and I made my entry in the intensive care unit almost completely forgetting my pain. Being a respiratory therapist I need to make my patients comfortable while treating them and along side need to make sure that the ward boys are working fine and every patient is getting proper care. In the ICU when I reached to a patient REHMAAN, a nice man though but very disappointed with his health, I gave him a routinely check up and then guided the ward boy to do the needful so as the treatment is well in place. And after analyzing few more patients I headed towards my cabin to take a small rest bout. While resting I heard a sharp voice as if someone dropped the medicine tray and all the bottles broke down, being a senior in that wing it becomes my responsibility to keep track of such incidents and reach out for any kind of help. As soon as I came out of cabin I saw Ryan lying down on ground holding his left arm with right hand and the medicine tray was near his right shoulder. All bottles were broken and drug stains were all over. Ryan was crying in pain, and was breathing very heavily as he has this problem of anxiety at times, I tried to help him to sit against the wall but he being a healthy guy it was a difficult task for me alone to do it. I tried to calm him down a bit but his breath was really going very abnormal, I got him a glass of water from he merely had a sip as he was not feeling comfortable at all. At the same time I required to make sure that calling any wad boys for help should not result in attention degrade for patients, so after making Ryan sit against the wall I went into the adjacent ICU and quickly analyzed the current scenario like who all patients need extra care and who are almost recovered so that some guys can attend to 3-4 patients so that I get some helping hands. Soon did I realize that there were almost 5 patients there who didn’t required intense care at the earnest time so I called their ward boys and made only two ward boys to attend to these 5 patients. They were showing nice signs of recovering and were not that demanding when it needed to attend them so I made this decision that for next one hour I have to manage this with these two guys attending to them. After assigning the task to them I took rest two with me to help Ryan, I send one of them to get a wheel chair and the other one to get some immediate medicines so that we could stabilize his condition. This guy got the medicines I told him and I gave the injection to ryan to get his palpitation under control and its effect was immediate, soon he was breathing normal but at the same time crying in immense pain which he was feeling in his arm. After letting him stabilize a bit, we were there helping Ryan to get on wheelchair, being the head of this ward it was impossible for me to leave the scene and go along with Ryan so I sent one guy with him, who took him on the chair to the respective department to get him diagnosed for the problem if there is any and make sure he gets proper treatment. As soon as this guy left with Ryan I along with the other guy made sure that cleaning staff is called on immediately and the corridor is neat so as to make the guests, if any, comfortable as these medicines are too much volatile so their stink would put hindrance in normal movement of people. After the cleaning was done and the new medicines were in place for the broken ones I released this attendant to get back to his ICU so that he can help his colleagues there. After this I again went for the visit of my ward and see I’m available wherever the help or my services are required, meanwhile the guy whom I‘d sent with Ryan came back and updated me with Ryan’s current condition. Unfortunately Ryan had broke his left hand bone and he required a plaster for that and some basic medicines, so this guy helped him to and came back as there were attendants to attend to ryan. After my routinely visit to the ward and finishing my job, I updated my assistant that I’m going to pay a visit to Ryan and do get back to me on my cell phone in case of any emergency. I reached Ryan’s cabin to see him resting and I saw a plaster round his arm, then I met his doctor and inquired about his health and present condition and the routine he should follow for the coming week. I came back from to my cabin told the assistant to take care of Ryan’s routine and make sure he is provided with adequate facilities during his tenure in the ward, it’s a habit of mine that I treat people working under me as my children and make sure I’m always there whenever they need any sort of help. The next day I came to office, I got a garland while coming back to wish Ryan quick recovery. I met him asked hi about his well being. He was doing well and being a staff member was getting excellent service as well so there were no worries about that. His doctor told me that he will be discharged in a day or two and there was nothing to worry about his condition, everything was under control. This news relieved me of great load as Ryan is from a far off place and it would have been a worst case if there was any serious problem with him. But thank god everything was fine in his case. I was feeling happy for the guy that my timely decisions helped him a lot to overcome this problem without affecting our normal schedule and the other guys were also very supportive in making the work easy otherwise it would have been a tough task. I made way to my cabin put my belongings there to join the mundane routine in the work place; things were very much in order and in some days Ryan too joined back and we all were back in our regular routine work. Outcomes: The outcome of this whole exercise was that it helped me a lot to understand my skills as a manager and gave me an insight into the potential constraints those arise when you work by stretching your limits. Due to presence of mind and some wise decisions made in time, Ryan was fine and back to work in a fortnight. The whole case turned out to be catalyst also in deepening my relations with my staff and I got an opportunity to show them how much I care for them despite I being strict at the times when needed. DISSCUSSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNT Patience is very important in every field of life, where ever you go. Come what may if you are stable enough to handle it then it is not going to sweep you off your feet. That is one of the most important quality of mine that was very important while the above mentioned incident took place. When I saw Ryan lying on ground, had I gone panic, things would have worsen more and would have thus added to his problem rather than helping him out. I kept my cool in those adverse conditions and helped him to stabilize a bit. He being some what under the influence of anxiety was too much worrying and taking things very hard on himself, I motivated him as well consoled him that everything gonna be fine. His face still flashes in front of me whenever I think of that incident, the innocence amalgamated with fear, I can’t express here what his expressions were saying that time it was as if million thoughts were going on in his mind at that point of time but with help of colleagues and my presence of mind we managed to handle everything properly and things were brought very much under control without disrupting the normal routine at work place. As they learning never stops and when you stop learning you actually start decomposing. That is the principle I follow in life. From every little or big incident of life you need to learn the lesson it has in it, on similar line I do extract the lessons which life teaches us and make sure if such problem exists later I should be ready with a great solution. It should not hinder my progress rather I take every problem as a challenge and try to beat it to the fullest. From this incident also I learnt some very good lessons and I thought of putting them here point wise so that every one take a good note of it and if possible try to implement it somehow in the times of need : 1. Don’t get panic when there is a problem rather maintain your cool and try to analyze the situation carefully. 2. Don’t make decisions in haste because It can have a deep impact which you will realize later, just analyze the problem and think what is the best way out and then take a decision accordingly. 3. Whenever there is an option available for better usage try to use it rather than overloading yourself with work, because it will affect the total time spent to solve that problem. On the contrary if you have resources available, try to utilize them to the optimum. 4. While assigning work to individuals make sure you choose the best suited guy for the work assigned otherwise the whole work will be messed up on the other hand if suitable work is assigned to proper individual, the work will be done with full zeal and more efficiently. That is what is learnt from this experience and I would like to sum it as that my past experiences and presence of mind helped me lot to tackle this problem in the best possible manner. Read More