The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has issued a new health policy statement aimed at eliminating stigma, discrimination, bullying and harassment that impede the provision of quality cardiovascular care.
Dr. Pamela S. Douglas
“Of course, we pay a lot of attention to patient and patient care issues, but if the workforce has some form of disability, our ability to optimally care for patients is limited,” said Duke University. Pamela S. Douglas, Doctor of Medicine, said. Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, co-chaired by the Writing Committee.
This document is the second of the ACC Diversity Inclusion Initiative, following the 2019 report on equal rewards and opportunities in cardiology, but she said the foundation of this work actually began five years ago. rice field. theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
“Unfortunately, COVID and other global events have created a climate in the United States where people are not treating each other badly,” Douglas said. “It’s often divisive and confrontational when it should be collaborative. So this document was a coincidence but a great time at this point.”
The 2022 ACC Health Policy Statement on Respect, Politeness, and Building Inclusions in the Cardiovascular Workforce was published online March 17. Journal of American College of Cardiology.
The 63-page document provides 12 principles for building a better workplace, starting with the belief that public behavior and respect are inherent in the core values of teamwork, collaboration and professionalism.
ACC provides the “ubiquity” of non-civil behavior to all organizations and individuals involved in providing cardiovascular care, education, or research, and the sequence of prejudices, discrimination, bullying, and harassment (BDBH) that characterizes it. Call for sexual recognition.
Recommendations provided to eliminate these behaviors include:
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Creating organizational policies and resources to ensure recruitment decisions, ratings, and department / program / center reviews is objective.
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Performance reviews include an assessment of personal behavior related to respect and politeness.
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Establish a confidential, impartial, and transparent mechanism for reporting and investigating suspected individuals and / or departments of BDBH.
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Adopt long-term metrics and accurate data collection to track progress and inform future policies and interventions.
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Encourage independent assessment of organizational culture and efforts to reduce BDBH.
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Celebrate those who promote and achieve excellence in reducing BDBH.
Patients with bad behavior
What’s new, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, is the number of patients themselves engaged in rude and non-civil behavior, as Douglas observed.
“As a doctor, it has always been a patient’s right, so you work to backflip to deal with the patient,” she said. “But when patients say, I don’t want to be treated by someone from outside the United States. It’s no longer our society, and it has to be dealt with and dealt with.”
The policy statement features a set of online tools and resources, including 15 cases from anonymized institutions and 30 sample policies, some providing an action framework for coping with this type of patient behavior. To do. For example, an individual can ask a patient why he or she has spoken, and a healthcare provider can explain who is qualified and wants to take care of his or her family. If it was the recipient trainee, it is fair for them to return to their boss, mentor, or training director.
“They need to back up you and explain to the patient that we are not in this hospital but willing to provide care, but they are part of the hospital and You have to follow the rules and environment of this hospital, “she said.
Dr. Michael J. Mack
Writing Committee Co-Chairs Michael J. Mack, MD, Baylor Scott & White Health, Plano, Texas, theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology “One of the concepts I hadn’t heard before was the term” upstander. ” In other words, you can’t be on the sidelines and do nothing to see this happen. At work, if you have gender or racial prejudice, you need to get involved with the individual and get in touch to see what you can do to become the rapporteur. “
But it’s all too costly
Economic constraints are often cited as reasons for not focusing on workplace stigma, discrimination, bullying, harassment, or shelving initiatives, but that’s a false argument, says Mack and Douglas.
“One of the cases is the treatment of heart disease suffering from financial decline, and the Board recommends that diversity and citizens’ workplace efforts need to be done first,” Mack said. explained. “And this points out that in the long run, the cost of the business is so high that we can’t help it.”
Part of that cost is related to the loss of valuable employees who have contributed but left due to the lack of a culture of respect and positivity in the workplace. It has always been a risk, but he said it has become a particularly pressing issue due to the current labor shortage three years after the pandemic.
“There is a new review to make sure there is a positive work environment where people want to come to work every day,” he said. “I run a laboratory, which usually has a vacancy rate of 5% and currently has a vacancy rate of 25%.”
Today, healthcare is offered as a team, but if members feel harassed, bullied, discriminated against, despised or worsened, they will not contribute to the top of the game.
“It is very well documented that bad behavior exists and that it adversely affects patient care in institutions that are at great legal and regulatory risk,” she said. “And the document reveals that the risk is increasing.”
Douglas demands good behavior in a joint committee accredited body, and the Graduate School of Medicine Education Accreditation Council provides education on professionalism and evidence that trainees are treated as professionals. I pointed out that I am requesting.
Funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health have also jumped into this area, recently setting up a hotline to report harassment, discrimination and bullying by NIH-funded investigators and have them investigate. We are giving you 30 days of grace.
“In the last two years, they have lost money and removed the grants of 75 researchers, but the previous five years were zero,” Douglas said. “So I think the results are escalating, even if the bad behavior may be escalating.”
The new 2022 ACC Health Policy Statement on Building Respect, Politeness and Inclusion in the Cardiovascular Workplace will be discussed in a session at ET’s ACC 2022 Science Session on April 2, 4:15 pm.
J Am Coll Cardiol. Published online on March 17, 2022.Full text
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