Culture, Health & Sexuality Paper

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss health care culture and describe how CWV can be used to improve ethical practices. In a 1,000-1,250-word essay, discuss the important factors associated with health care culture. Include the following in your essay:

A definition of health care culture, including culture of excellence and safety.

Two or three examples of principles for building a culture of excellence and safety.

An explanation of the role of various stakeholders in improving health care culture.

An explanation of how Christian worldview (CWV) principles might be used by health care organizations to improve ethical practices, whether they are Christian or not.

Two or three examples of how the integration of faith learning and work at GCU can be implemented by individuals to improve health care culture.Culture, Health & Sexuality Paper

This assignment requires a minimum of three scholarly sources.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

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How Christian Worldview Can Improve Ethical Practices in Healthcare Culture

Healthcare as an intangible product is provided by various entities that are classified as providers or organizations. These organizations or providers have one thing in common. They have an identity and they are populated by people or the human resource necessary to provide healthcare. As a natural attribute of humans, we have the propensity to adapt to a particular way of doing things and sticking to it. By definition, this becomes the culture in that context even though it is not written down. From this same standpoint, healthcare organizations also have organizational culture that drives its policies. Healthcare culture therefore means the specific ways through which healthcare organizations and other disparate providers offer healthcare services. For instance, current healthcare culture is reliant on innovative health information management (HIM) technologies to deliver quality healthcare faster and more efficiently (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). This is the reason why one will find every provider having installed an electronic health record (EHR) system from one of the many vendors in the market. This paper is about how the Christian worldview can be used to improve healthcare culture by imparting ethical practices.

A Culture of Excellence and Safety

As stated above, healthcare culture is the totality of the actions and processes that are performed and taken by healthcare providers and organizations in their quest to deliver healthcare services to their respective populations. Currently, for instance, healthcare culture in the United States and around the world is shaped by evidence-based practice or EBP (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019). This means that for every provider and in every healthcare organization, all interventions used to manage patients must be backed by scholarly scientific evidence for efficacy. This culture has been accepted universally as the one that leads to desirable patient outcomes. It is also at the root of the culture of excellence by healthcare providers and organizations. What this means is that providers and organizations are engaging in constant quality improvement (QI) initiatives and submitting themselves to assessment by quality standards organizations. One of the most recognizable quality standards organizations in the United States is the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). This organization gives the Gold Standard of quality to those providers and healthcare organizations that have shown proof of a culture of safety and excellence in the provision of healthcare services. As an illustration, this culture of safety and excellence is defined by very low or non-existent rates of accidental patient falls, readmissions, pressure ulcers, and hospital-acquired infections or HAIs amongst other outcome measures.

Examples of Principles for Building a Culture of Safety and Excellence

A culture of excellence and safety by healthcare providers and organizations is built on a set of principles that also serve as policy and strategic objectives. Two of these principles that underpin a healthcare culture of safety and excellence are (i) the principle of transformational leadership, and (ii) the principle of continuous improvement. Transformational leadership in a healthcare organization provides empowerment to healthcare employees, motivates, and inspires them to achieve (Choi et al., 2016). The nurses and other employees work in an environment of psychological safety and thus provide safe and competent care to patients just because of this. They are not stressed out and do not suffer from burnout like in other places where transformational leadership is not practiced. The other principle that helps in the building of a culture of safety and excellence in healthcare is that if continuous improvement. Healthcare organizations that have shown leadership in patient safety and excellence in the quality of healthcare services delivered are always improving their processes and procedures. They are never complacent and satisfied with their achievements.Culture, Health & Sexuality Paper

Role of Stakeholders in Improving Healthcare Culture

Stakeholders in healthcare are all those parties that have a relationship in one way or another with the healthcare provider of organization. In this case, they include the directors (policy makers), the management, the employees, the patients (the customers), the community, suppliers, and creditors. All these groups of people have a role to play in improving healthcare culture.

The directors are responsible for formulating policy that guides the direction that the organization takes. This represents the head of the organization. They must therefore formulate policies that are friendly to continuous improvement in patient safety and care quality. The management on the other hand has the role of ensuring the policies friendly to continuous quality improvement developed by the directors are followed and implemented. The implementers are the employees who carry out the actual tasks and translate the policies into practice. The patients who are the consumers of the services also have a role in that they need to point out if the services they receive are of below average quality. This honesty and openness is what will enable the management and the directorship to act to improve that particular quality area. The community from which the patients come must also hold the organization to account. This is what will keep it on its toes and make it improve care quality continually. Suppliers must be prompt with providing materials that are needed for QI initiatives. Lastly but not least, creditors must always enter into an agreement with the organization on the terms of payment. This is so that their demands for payment in the middle of QI programs do not impede the process.

How Christian Worldview Principles Can Help Improve Ethical Practices and Implementation of Faith Work and Learning at GCU

The Christian worldview is underpinned by the belief in a higher God (Summit Ministries, 2019). This higher being is known to be omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (all-resent). Definitely, this worldview is driven by spirituality and righteousness (Bogue & Hogan, n.d.). Under the Christian worldview, healthcare workers are expected to be honest and to act for the best interest of the patient at all times. Because God is omnipresent and omniscient, even unethical actions committed to patients who are under sedation or who are not concious will be seen by God and punished. The Christian worldview expects the healthcare worker to “love their neighbor” unconditionally. This is a universal principle that applies to all regardless of their professed religion. It should not confuse any healthcare worker because it is an order that rhymes with the bioethical principles of justice, autonomy, nonmaleficence, and beneficence (Reimer‐Kirkham, 2019). In loving one’s neighbor, a patient should never be harmed intentionally (nonmaleficence), they should not receive discriminatory treatment (justice), they should grant informed consent to any procedures done to them (autonomy), and they should only receive beneficial treatment (beneficence).Culture, Health & Sexuality Paper

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            Here are two examples of how integration of faith learning and work at GCU could be implemented by healthcare workers to improve healthcare culture. First, faith learning at GCU instils a culture of integrity while still a student. This way, the student can use this GCU philosophy as a template that they can then carry on to their practice and improve healthcare culture. Second, implementation can happen in only those workplaces that also subscribe to the Christian worldview. This is a choice that the student will make once they graduate and become professionals in their own right.

Conclusion

Healthcare culture is a set of principles that guide providers in giving the care that they would like to offer as per their vision and mission. Luckily, the Christian worldview with its spiritual angle can be successfully used to assist in bringing about ethical practice in healthcare culture. This is the possibility that this paper has looked into and discussed thoroughly.

References

Alotaibi, Y., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi Medical Journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. Doi: https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

Bogue, D.W., & Hogan, M. (n.d.). Foundational issues in Christian spirituality and ethics. [Publisher uncertain]

Choi, S.L., Goh, C.F., Adam, M.B.H., & Tan, O.K. (2016). Transformational leadership, empowerment, and job satisfaction: The mediating role of employee empowerment. Human Resources for Health, 14(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0171-2

Melnyk, B.M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice, 4^th ed. Wolters Kluwer.

Reimer‐Kirkham, S. (2019). Complicating nursing’s views on religion and politics in healthcare. Nursing Philosophy, 20(4), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12282

Summit Ministries (2019). Christian worldview. https://www.summit.org/christian-worldview/

Culture, Health & Sexuality Paper