Physician Attitudes in Nursing

Physician attitudes and patient attributes have combined to produce the characteristic "sick role" expected of hospital patients. Parson’s description of the sick role explains why patients often abdicate personal responsibility for their condition and recovery to a health care system more than willing to accept the authority to decide what is best for them (Sultz & Young, 2006, p. 6). In the hospital, otherwise assertive, independent individuals tend to assume a passive and dependent “sick role” (Sultz & Young, 2006, p. 91).
As a medical society, we have classically enabled them to continue to think and act this way. Only in recent years have the mindset and patient, family and community awareness and education started becoming more preventive and focused on health and wellness. The new shift will hopefully increase positive feedback and involvement of patients in their health and wellness.
For a hospital to operate efficiently and effectively, the three important influences in its governance -- that is, medical staff, board of trustees, and administration -- must work together in reasonable harmony. The major operating divisions of a hospital represent areas of the hospitals functions. Although they may use different names, the usual units are medical, nursing, patient therapy, diagnosis, fiscal, human resources, hotel services and community relations (Sultz & Young, 2006, p. 83). Many factors contribute to the tension between these departments within their daily operations. With so many different kinds of employees and so many interrelated systems and functions it is a small wonder that hospitals work at all, much less as well as they do. With the multitude of tasks that are performed every day by the hundreds of employees in a busy hospital, misunderstandings and information breakdowns in patient care are inevitable (Sultz & Young, 2006, p. 90). Each department/division has an approach for success within their respective arena of health care....