Healthcare Delivery: Time for a Paradigm Shift Towards a more Humane Clinical Care
Publication Date: 21/10/2020
Author(s): Mr. Asonye Christian Chinedu C..
Volume/Issue: Volume 3 , Issue 7 (2020)
Abstract:
The healthcare delivery centres, i.e. from primary, secondary, tertiary and specialist levels are certainly not known to be a place where inhumane care is rendered to clients/patients who finds the hospital environment new and strange, and are worried about their medical/surgical conditions. Unfortunately, there are several reported forms and manners of inhumane treatment being meted out on patients daily in various hospitals by some healthcare workers. These include verbal abuse (shouting, scolding, or using insulting languages), physical abuse, rude behaviors (such as providers ignoring, dismissing or ridiculing the patient's opinions), and abandoning patients during consultations or in critical situations when assistance was required, and disregard of patient’s privacy. Also, unavailability or absenteeism of either the doctor or nurse who is supposed to be on-call or on duty has also been reported and has left the patients to suffer untold hardship, and some have paid the ultimate price – death. Healthcare professionals, most especially doctors and nurses' negative behaviors towards patients, are fast becoming a norm, as patients are being perceived as an object rather than a human being with dignity. The thought of the medical/nursing profession as a calling or a profession borne out of the altruistic concern for humanity is fast fading away and is being replaced with a job title that is more transactional. To eschew inhumane nursing/medical care in healthcare institutions, health workers need attitudinal change. Patients get attached to professionals with a positive, lovely, and friendly attitude, just like bees to nectar. There is a need to reattach great value to human life, respect, and uphold the dignity of every patient, and this could only be achieved through attitudinal change. The government must also help in regulating the activities in the healthcare sector, and ensuring formidable partnerships amongst the federal, state, and local governments and the private (NGO) sectors.
Keywords:
Human, Inhumane, Nursing, Attitude, Healthcare, Healthcare Workers, Attitudinal Change
