Organizational Aspects of Caring

Authors: Scott, Robert A.; Aiken, Linda H.; Mechanic, David;

Citation: The Milbank Quarterly, Spring 1995 v73 n1 p77(19)

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Medical care_Social aspects

Medical personnel and patient_Social aspects

Health services administration_Analysis

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Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT Milbank Memorial Fund 1995

Caring is fundamental to competence in medicine. Expressions of humaneness in the relationship between doctor and patient foster bonds of trust, enabling doctors and patients to communicate in ways that enhance diagnosis, treatment, and compliance. To be effective, a caring attitude must be adopted by all persons involved in the delivery of health care. Components of caring can be specified, learned, and incorporated into routine medical practice. Through their impact on stress management and coping, as well as morale and job satisfaction, the organizational and administrative practices surrounding health care encounters decisively impinge on caring. The organizational and financial arrangements for enhancing the humane delivery of health care are examined.

Full Text COPYRIGHT Milbank Memorial Fund 1995

During the twentieth century biomedical knowledge has exploded beyond all

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ff manage stressful demands. For instance, group patterns of mutual assistance, teamwork, information sharing, and solutions derived by group processes provide important and tangible instrumental assistance in enabling individual staff members to manage and cope successfully with difficult and upsetting tasks (Mechanic 1974). Supportive group processes bolster staff members' self-esteem, their sense of personal efficacy, and their personal empowerment. These systems of support promote group members' ability to help one another during times of stress and encourage other members of the team to feel comfortable with their own efforts and themselves. The studies also suggest that having a sense of control over one's work, experiencing group support, having opportunities to use one's skills, and gaining feedback on the value of one's role all alleviate stress, powerfully mitigating the tendency of care providers to respond to the stresses of working in clinical settings through personal detachment. Morale and Job Satisfaction Another body of research bearing on staff burnout concerns the maintenance of professional morale and job satisfaction. This research links burnout to a variety of outcomes measuring interpersonal relations,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6878
Approximate Pages = 28 (250 words per page)