Association of coworker Reports About Unprofessional Behavior by Surgeons with Surgical Complications in their Patients looks into the importance of effective communication, situational awareness and respect among healthcare professionals. Their assertion is that these factors result in optimal performance and an increased reliability, especially in surgical teams. Lancaster, Kolakowsky‐Hayner, Kovacich & Greer‐Williams (2015) assert that coordination and intervention where necessary between physicians, nurses and Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP) is crucial in error prevention as each entity is crucial in the provision of quality healthcare. They noted that misunderstandings and tension often arise from a conflict of interests as well as difference of opinions, interfering with the ability of practitioners to communicate effectively and collaborate with coworkers. Where unprofessionalism is encountered within the surgical department, cases of surgical complications and medical errors are cited from due to a lack of team work among the healthcare providers and a lack of prioritizing patient safety.
The patients who were counted as eligible for this research were obtained from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) and had all undergone either inpatient or outpatient surgery under attending surgeons who had more than 36 months before patient operation of coworker reports monitoring. The medical errors and post-surgical operation complications that were considered in this article were those that occurred within a period of 30 days after a surgical operation was done (Cooper et al., 2019.)
The
article concludes that surgeons who are labelled by their fellow coworkers as
the most unprofessional in the dispensation of their duties, often have the
largest cases of patient complications after they perform surgeries. Therefore,
healthcare organizations in their bid to improve patient outcomes should focus
on these surgeons who exhibit unprofessionalism in their interactions with
other healthcare practitioners, as such behaviors has been attributed to
increased risks and adverse outcomes where surgical patients are involved.
