Ron Wyatt, MD, MHA, Staff Physician, Huntsville Hospital, AL; George W. Merck Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Learning Objectives: At the end of this activity, you will be able to:
- Give an example of a disruptive behavior within a health care setting.
- Describe how disruptive behavior can harm teamwork and communication within a health care setting.
- Explain how disruptive behavior can lead to harm for patients.
Description: A resident tells a medical student to do a blood gas on a patient. The student says, “I don’t know how.” The resident is annoyed — and he says something that he’ll regret for years. Physician Ron Wyatt reflects on what he said (and wishes he had said) to the student.
Discussion Questions:
- Why do you think Dr. Wyatt ordered the medical student to perform 12 blood gas procedures?
- Imagine you are the student who was just ordered to perform the blood gases. How would you have reacted to the order?
- What do you think was the dynamic of Dr. Wyatt’s relationship to the medical student in subsequent days?
- Would you want to have been a patient in Dr. Wyatt’s care when he was a resident? Why or why not? How about now?
- Have you ever seen an example of a disruptive behavior in a health care setting? What happened? How did you react?
