Action To Grey

Reaction to Grey’s Anatomy “ DO NOT DISTURB”, all in big caps, printed then posted on the door of Dr. Richard Weber’s office. Dr. Richard Weber is the chief doctor of Seattle Grace Hospital, giving him a monumental responsibility of being a leader and manager of the whole hospital business. Being the head of something big is really flabbergasting and overwhelming, and it could give major pain in the ass especially when things go out of hand. But was the sign on the door justifiable?. Let us look at the situation. When Dr. Macdreamy asked Dr. Weber what was happening, Dr. Weber mentioned that he does not know what to do, he was overwhelmed by a lot of events happening inside the hospital; Dr. Burke resigned and there were no cardiologists-slash-surgeons who want to be resident of the hospital, a doctor has died, interns go whack and he kept on whining and complaining how things went out of hand, and since for every action there is an opposite reaction, his reaction was to resort to an isolation, making statements like, “ So right now, I am just going to lie down here until I figure out what to do”. True to his words, the doctor did lie down and then stared blankly into space. Now was his action-slash-reaction to things justifiable?.. For his own good, I think yes, stressed out and burnt out, one needs time to relax, unwind and figure things out, but for the hospital, his action was quite unjustifiable. As a leader and a manager, the hospital needs him. But what he did was to isolate himself, to crumble down and as a result, he was not able to attend to his subordinates’ needs. On the article entitled An overview of stress in medical practice, “Stress in medical practice has always been a topical issue. This is partly because medical service involves taking care of other peoples’ lives and mistakes or errors could be costly and sometimes irreversible. It is thus expected that the medical doctor himself must be in a perfect state of mind devoid of morbid worries and anxieties. This is however not usually the case, because the doctor apart from being affected by the same variables that impose stress on the general population, is also prone to stress because of the peculiarities of his work situation and the expectation of the society at large”. “The ‘burnt out phenomenon’, a terminology made popular by Felton consists of a triad of bemotional exhaustion, depersonalization (treating patients and other people as if they were objects) and low productivity/achievements. It is particularly common in health professionals under stress. These invariably lead to ‘impairment of health, grief and suffering’. It compromises the quality of care which may lead to litigation and a vicious cycle”.

However, stressed though he might be, he should still work on his role. He could take a couple minutes off to relieve the stress but he should not do things like sticking a bizarre mark on his office door. He sure did take his time off to think, but then problems won’t be solved without actions, and making him unavailable won’t help a thing either because as mentioned in the medical leadership article article “‘vision, ability to sacrifice and courage’ represent skills that are mandatory for any leader’. By courage, it means that “ it is not the absence for fear but rather the realization that some things are far more important than fear”. By vision, it means that goals should be realized. And by ability to sacrifice, it means, doing what is essentially good for others and making time to meet other’s needs. In the article Medical Leadership: Doctors at the Helm of Change, “the lack of clear and reassuring guidance coming from respected and qualified professionals affects doctors as much as the overall well-being of the whole [Canadian] medical system.” I should make comment on this literature. Firstly because I do believe that leadership is important and secondly because I personally like the article. It shows that to pursue excellence and to uphold productivity in all levels, there should be a good medical leader. The article mentions activities and programs that aim to empower students and physicians on the principle of good and efficient leadership. Though their vision is really good for the medical system, it is not a career path worth taking in Canada, because up to now, their medical system is under the management of professionals who are not into the medical field. Sad but true. In relation to nursing practice, leadership style and span of control in creating a positive work environment is extremely significant as this was affirmed by a study entitled Impact of the Manager’s Span of Control on Leadership and Performance. Nurse Managers with positive leadership styles, who develop, stimulate, and inspire followers to exceed their own self-interests for a higher purpose and are based on a series of exchanges or interactions between leader and followers, had more-satisfied staff. This in turn will lead to a valuable health care system which is more effective and efficient. In relation to Nursing education, Leadership training programs and activities should be done because “Countries around the world are starting to realize the importance of good medical leadership” as it is mentioned in the medical leadership article. Innovation should be done and leadership skills should be trained so that the health care delivery system in the 21st century is both effective and efficient.

Another thing that caught my interest in Grey’s anatomy was the lines of Dr. Dickson, a doctor who was invited to the hospital and was deeply wanted by Dr. Weber to work there. “ People are dying, right now. People are dying. (Just) leave them out of emotions, leave them out of science, leave them out of decision making”. Her statement to procure the organs of a brain dead girl exudes coercion and such thing violates the right of the patient or her significant other’s. The principle of autonomy was violated, the freedom to decide and freedom to act from coercion was implied. One thing more was the case of the patients of Dr. Grey and Dr. Bailey. Meridith Grey, admitted to having a dark and gray personality committed an action which crossed the right of a patient to live( but with the patient’s verbal consent ) to save another life. Her reason for me is quite justifiable. The patient was a prisoner and he was sentenced to death and is about to die in 5 days so why waste his organs. However, the patient was still alive and it was his right to live for another 5 more days. In the research For an indeterministic ethics. The emptiness of the rule in dubio pro vita and life cessation decisions “Medical personnel can face extremely difficult choices when confronted with a patient for whom life saving or life prolonging measures do not seem justified. They are advised to then use a simple rule viz. in dubio pro vita – "when in doubt, favor life". (But in the case of the prisoner, there was no doubt, so still, favor life) There was no doubt that the patient was alive, and that he can still survive the few days before his sentence, so ethically, his 5 days of life should be favored. Related to this case was the touching part where I was nearly on tears, the case of the li’l and fragile Jackson, the child who was supposed to be save by the organs of the prisoner. Dr. Miranda Bailey, frustrated and tired wanted to get off the child’s case for she was so attached and that she saw no hope of doing the organ transplant anytime sooner. However, the prisoner wanted to volunteer his organs, a noted violation to the principle of totality which means that a person must not sacrifice one of his organs if his health would be at stake. At first, Dr. Bailey did not want to accept the offer that was made by Grey and the prisoner because she knew that as doctors, it was their job to protect the integrity of their patients, in observance to the principle of beneficence, which means that “that it is the physician’s duty to do good for his patient.”. However, because of her frustration, Dr. Bailey crossed the line. The prisoner was having a brain surgery when bailey interrupted and asked Macdreamy to stop the surgery, crying and almost begging in her knees. Here, what she wanted was to literally kill the patient by stopping the surgery so that the prisoner’s organ would be given to the critically ill Jackson. Macdreamy mentioned that Dr. Bailey made an oath and that oath

has something to do with the principle of Non-maleficence which stands for the Hippocratic duty to “do no harm”, to treat and not to kill even if the patient has only 5 more days to live. On the issue of organ donation, for more than 40 years, the end-of-life practice of heart-beating (called brain death) or non–heart-beating (called cardiac or circulatory death) organ procurement for transplantation has thrived on an ideology based on concepts of “altruism,” “gift of life,” or “saving human life” without scrutiny of that medical practice. These could be a legal basis for declaring a person to be legally dead, and with regards to the rule “in dubio pro vita”, I personally don’t also approve of it because AS MENTIONED IN THE PRO VITA RESEARCH “giving it the force of law might represent a risk for medical personnel who choose not to support human life in some otherwise morally, medically and existentially uncontroversial circumstance. In other words, such a decision may, at least in theory, be challenged even if the termination of life support is fully morally justified.”

Saint Louis University College of Nursing Baguio City Journal Submitted by: Joebert D. Obillo Submitted to Mr. Don Leonardo Dacumos