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Have you been oriented on the policy? If so, has anyone had to report an incident?

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has mandated that organizations have policies in place by January 2009 for codes of conduct for employees.Evaluate the Sentinel Event Alert article above and write a 500-750-word paper describing the policy. Include:

Sentinel Event description.

Purpose for event reporting.

What authority does The Joint Commission have to make such a mandate?

What happens to a facility that does not comply?

If you work for an organization, even it is not health care, is there a code of conduct policy in place?

Do you know about it?

Have you been oriented on the policy? If so, has anyone had to report an incident?

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located on the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
LECTURE:
Behaviors and Attitudes
Introduction
Most health care professionals have chosen their careers from a genuine interest in caring for others. Health care is a fulfilling, yet challenging field in which positive outcomes are not always possible when dealing with disease and illness. The entire health care system is a demanding industry from the long-standing history of hierarchical structure of professions, the increasing demand on the workforce, and the constant threat of legal retaliation from the public. Adverse work behaviors have been studied for years, as have policy decisions made to make the profession safer and more attractive for the future generation.

Every industry has problems with poor workplace behaviors since they all involve working with people. Human nature is described as “fundamental dispositions and traits of humans” (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, 2006). Every industry has its own stress levels and intrinsic characteristics that can contribute to poor workplace behaviors, but the health care industry has unique situations that can increase the stress levels that can be overwhelming for any professional. Most decision or treatment options made by health care professionals have an impact on patient care or outcomes. Unlike the manufacturing industry that deals with an inanimate object, health care demands accurate results all the time.

Verbal abuse, physical threats, and violence have been ongoing issues in the health care profession for years. Many reports and research studies have attempted to make the profession and the public aware of this unsafe work environment and find ways in which to correct the situation. Recently, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) granted the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing an award to study violence by the public and patients against care workers in the emergency department (Koenig, 2008). Although this is not a new occurrence, the study will assess intervention effectiveness.

In 1995, 384 assaults and eight homicides occurred in hospitals. The largest number occurred in the emergency department (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2008). A recent Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) survey found that 86% of emergency room nurses were a victim of violence by patients or families of patients (Emergency Nurses Association, 2007). Often physical or verbal attacks are not reported, so accurate statistics are not possible to monitor the seriousness of the problem. Violence in the emergency department is so common that policies, instruction manuals, and entire conferences address the issue of protecting the workforce.

Assaults in the health care workplace have been accepted as just “part of the job” (Montana Nurses’ Association, 2007) and can contribute to added stress and high burn-out rates. The Massachusetts Nursing Association reports 200,000 assaults on health care workers in a 4-year span. It lists physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms after either witnessing an assault or being assaulted (Massachusetts Nursing Association, 2005). Reactions to the event can be so significant that the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing was developed to avoid post-traumatic stress reactions in the health care worker.