The healthcare system often faces problems related to patients, their families, or medical workers that the hospital’s leaders must address. It is the duty of the doctor or unit manager to resolve conflicts or crises that appear. The given case study describes the case of a Hispanic teenage girl who was recently diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes. This paper will discuss what problems persist in the case and suggest a plan to resolve the issue.
The primary problems in the case study are ethical issues and violation of hospital rules. It has been written in the case study that the patient’s family violates the laws of the hospital by visiting as a group of more than two people, bringing excessive amounts of sweets, and staying at the hospital during non-visiting hours. These violations can become a significant issue if other patients follow this example and similarly begin breaking the rules. Another problem is that medical workers cannot adequately address the case because patient is from ethnic minority. This ethical issue, whether the patient should be treated equally to others or slightly better or worse because of her background can result in more severe problems. The possible outcomes of the issues that can be achieved are discussing the violations with the patient’s family and convincing them to follow the medical regulations; convincing the girl’s family to leave her at the hospital due to therapeutic reasons; discussing the issue with unit personnel and find methods of safe interactions with the patient’s family.
Resolving these problems requires a detailed plan involving steps to creating a safe environment in the hospital unit for the patient and her family members, and the team. The first step would be to provide training for the medical team. It was emphasized in the case study that the group did not know how to react to conflicting situations of violations and, at the same time, were aware of the sensitive care plan for the patient. Moreover, the possibility of patient discharge appeared on the day nurses started responding to family’s violations of rules. Therefore, educating the nursing team about working with patients from ethnic minorities and how to implement a sensitive care plan (Citizens Advice, 2020). The next step would be discussing the case with the patient’s parents. Correctly delivering the message about the importance of hospital rules is a critical action the unit leader should take to complete solving the problem.
The expectations from the unit team would be to find compromise in interacting with the patient and her family and learn from this experience for future cases. There’s a possibility that awareness of the Hispanic minority is not enabling the team to fulfill their responsibilities. Thus, it is essential for the team to learn to treat patients equally by eliminating biases. This case might be an excellent example for the team to learn how to work with patients from ethnic minorities; thus, it is essential for the team to scrutinize the case.
This case requires the unit leader to employ transformational leadership theory. This theory is the most suitable for the nursing team because its core is an effective performance for the sense of mission and purpose. According to Collins et al. (2020), this type of leadership aligns with nurses because of its emphasis on morals and instant changes. The patient with insulin-dependent diabetes requires quick changes in the system to incorporate the sensitive care plan more accurately and educate the nurses about working with ethnic minorities. Therefore, the transformational leadership theory is the most appropriate for the case.
The effectiveness of the described plan can be evaluated after implementing it, but there are some risks. There’s a risk of failure in implementing the sensitive care plan for the patient because the research has supported that Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients perceive the treatment differently (Serna, Arevalo & Tomar, 2017). Therefore, there is a risk that the designed care type will not be effective for the patient with insulin-dependent diabetes. In addition, there is a risk that the chosen leadership approach will not be effective in this case.
References
Serna, C. A., Arevalo, O., & Tomar, S. L. (2017). Dental-related use of hospital emergency departments by Hispanics and non-Hispanics in Florida. American journal of public health, 107(S1), S88-S93. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303746
Collins, E., Owen, P., Digan, J., Dunn, F. (2020). Applying transformational leadership in nursing practice. Nurse Stand, 35(5), 59-66. DOI: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11408
Citizens Advice. (2020). Taking action about discrimination in health and Care Services. Citizens Advice.