In my last blog, I wrote about the 4th International Conference on Violence in Healthcare, and shared the ICARE model developed by the University of Rochester in New York, where I hold an appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. In talking more with Mike Privitera, there were some limitations to the model, and I revised it to be more consistent with what we teach in The Mandt System® and with what I know about Dr. Privitera’s commitment to improving the emotional, psychological, and physical safety of all people.
In researching the concerns in health care, I discovered that 400 physicians commit suicide every year. While the causes are individually specific, the combined stresses of individual accountability, decreased funding and other supports, and the general climate of health care today are underlying factors in the bullying and other forms of workplace violence present in healthcare. In order to combat bullying, we need to do more than Zero Tolerance Policies. Zero Tolerance has proven to be ineffective in lowering rates of workplace violence, and in the United Kingdom, there was a 70% increase in workplace violence episodes after Zero Tolerance policies were implement, according to Brodie Patterson of the University of Stirling in Scotland.
ICARE
INTEGRITY
COMPASSION
ACCOUNTABILITY
RESPECT
EXCELLENCE
WECARE
Wellness
Empathy
Compassion
Achievement
Respect
Engagement
Wellness is the goal of healthcare services.
Empathy is the bridge between people that transforms sympathy to Compassion. It is the sense of being connected with, not just to others, that empowers healing to transform lives. Compassion invites and empowers others to cross the bridges we build together from the lives people have to the lives people want to have. Empathy is not only with our patients, it is with each other first and foremost.
Achievement in health care is not an individual process or event. In order for a patient to achieve Wellness, she or he must have been empowered to achieve through the Empathy and Compassion of the health care professionals serving them. Achievement of health care goals cannot be measured at an individual level alone. Achievement of wellness occurs only when there is mutual support between all the stakeholders in healthcare, supporting each other so we can, together, support our patients.
Respect must permeate this system. Respect does not have to be earned, it is given freely to all people, simply because we are people. Respect is unconditional, it is a right that does not need to be claimed. Respect is a pre-requisite to Engagement, the invitation for people to participate in and, whenever possible, direct the process of their own healing. Without engagement, patients may not be able to achieve their goals because of a lack of investment in the process of healing.
The WECARE model is one that can be transferred to any setting serving others. The model gives us the roadmap we can use to guide the work we do with each other, so we can better support the people we serve.
Bob Bowen – Mandt System SVP
