Editor,
Having begun my career in 1971, I have been afforded decades of opportunity to experience health care’s medical evolution as well as its cultural devolution. Most of us are familiar with numerous positive medical advances.
However, many current administrative practices threaten to negatively affect the health, safety and overall well-being of healthcare consumers and employees alike.
Recent public discussions of Whidbey General Hospital’s leadership, transparency, and culture reveal a significant need to replace healthcare’s “abnormally normal” complacency with responsibility and accountability to its employees and the community.
With these concerns in mind, it was my honor to serve as an advisor for the American Nurses Association, or ANA, Professional Issues Panel.
The ANA is the authoritative nursing organization that represents and delineates the core values that guide a professional’s conscious and practice. I am proud to announce the ANA’s Incivility, Bullying and Workplace Violence Position Statement is now available for public viewing at http://nursingworld.org/DocumentVault/Position-Statements/Practice/Position-Statement-on-Incivility-Bullying-and-Workplace-Violence.pdf
The ANA has declared 2015 as “The Year of Ethics.”
This statement reminds us that all levels of registered nurses are expected to model behaviors described in the ANA’s professional standards and position statements as well as each state’s Nurse Practice Act.
The Workplace Violence position statement defines varying degrees of repeated negative behavior — ranging from rudeness to intimidation, bullying, and outright verbal and/or physical threats and assaults.
In addition to addressing all aspects of the mental, emotional, and verbal/physical abuse of staff, and its effect on patient care, it also includes substantial emphasis on leadership’s obligation to ensure a culture of civility and safety for all.
I encourage everyone to read the ANA’s Workplace Violence position statement since it can be applied to all non-healthcare work environments as well, and offers relevant insight specific to an administrations’ social responsibility to their community.
In line with the ANA’s Workplace Violence statement, it appears that recent administrative changes demonstrate that new chief executive Geri Forbes is creating a culture of civility and safety for Whidbey General Hospital employees, patients, and our community as a whole.
Understanding that change is a process, not an event, I look forward to WGH’s transformation.
Patricia Nathan-Ulloa, RN
Coupeville
