Stress in Emergency Department Physicians †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Stress in Emergency Department Physicians. Answer: Introduction Human resources are the people that are either working for an organization or a company and human resource department is responsible for the effective management of the employees. In the year 1960, the labour relations gained attention and the organizational behaviour and motivation slowly gained traction. Human resource management is a generalized term which takes into account the employee development in an organization. Human resource management is also called the talent management. and it involves the management of organizational human resources or capital. Human resource management is focussed on several areas and it includes staffing and recruiting; benefits and compensation; learning and training; employee and labour relations; organization development. Human resource management includes the administering and developing the programs that are designed to increase the effectiveness of a business or an organization. It also involves the cultivation, management, creation of a bette r employee-employer relation (Bratton Gold, 2017). This study is based on the critical and an in-depth analysis from the point of view of a human resource professional who is working in a regional hospital. Presently there is a big shortage of doctors and in the coming years, the shortage will rise to a great extent. The shortage of the doctors in the rural areas is a serious problem in Australia and it provides an opportunity for the doctors of New Zealand to make easy out of practising in Australia for a week. The city-based doctors are unwilling to work in the rural areas, and thus this provides an immense opportunity for the doctors from New Zealand to work in Australian rural hospital for a week and earn huge sums of money. Recently, shortage of staffs in the healthcare sector has led to the increased pressure on the existing staffs and the doctors. This has led to increased fatigue and burnout within the healthcare professionals. The clinical staffs are experiencing immense work pressure and associated depression. The shortage of doctors in the emergency departments has led to the increased level of pressure within the healthcare setup. The situation, however, is not that gloomy b ecause there are people are desperately trying to get into this healthcare sector. In one case it has been found that in one hospital one doctor is overseeing 26 patients. This busy schedule has resulted in too many doctors choosing to suicide due to the deterioration of their personal health. The doctors either choose to commit suicide or try to self-diagnose themselves. The doctors that are well aware of their health condition seek professional help. There have been studies in the American hospital that specify the doctors are continuously undergoing clinical depression and this has led to several kinds of medication errors and prescribing errors. The doctors often are reluctant to treat their colleagues that are suffering from mental illness. Reward practices Human Resource Management has the responsibility to look after the hard work of the employees. The employee can be a doctor, a nurse, physician or a clinical staff. The rewarding practices are the strategies that act to recognise the positive action of a doctor in a clinical setting. This rewarding practice if implemented and executed well can bring positive outcome in the overall performance of the emergency department. Recognising the hard work and the efforts of the employee's help in encouraging and boosting the morale of the doctors that work in an emergency department (Cogin, Ng Lee, 2016). The various types of the reward practices that can be used here with respect to the management of the senior emergency staff are as follows: Monetary rewards- monetary rewards are the type of the rewards that can be readily given to the emergency staff for the hard work in the emergency department. There is another type of monetary reward like providing incentives to the senior emergency staff for the large number of the patients that they attend and also for the extended hours of work (Young et al., 2010). Non-monetary rewards- the non-monetary rewards include the awards that are not in the monetary form and includes the promotion, usage of the hospital facilities, letters of appreciation, certificates and awards. Flexible pay- this kind is pay is dependent on the performance of an individual that is working in an emergency healthcare unit and demands long hours of work. Although the senior emergency staff will get the basic pay that he is allotted to, however, the long hours of work along with the extra number of patients that the emergency unit is attending can provide an option for extra pay (Young et al., 2010). Recognition- recognition can be defined as the genuine appreciation, approval, acknowledgement of the employee performance. The recognition is also a form of reward which is can be given to the employees on an annual basis. This recognition can be delivered one to one basis, verbally or in a written form (Cogin, Ng Lee, 2016). Implication of rewards practices for the management of employee performance in an emergency ward Reward system can be considered an important part that contributes to the employee performance. Employee performance is highly affected by the becomes more effective due to the high rewards system. Especially in an emergency ward, the senior management staff performs the toughest work of attaining the emergency cases that come pouring in during the hospital hours and even during the night. This leads to the exhaustion and burnout of the healthcare professionals. The working ability can be greatly enhanced when the rewards given to the employees in an emergency ward are attractive. Job performance is an important aspect of the human resource management (Boselie, 2010). Performance is important for the purpose of achieving the better health outcomes and treatment of the patients that are coming in at an emergency situation. Rewards are considered important as it acts as a motivating factor for the employees. The best part is that better rewards system attracts the newer employees and i t acts as a rewarding factor for the for the existing employees. The good work of the employees is necessary for the better health outcomes of the patient and the also help in delivering better healthcare. Employees give their best efforts in order to achieve the better health outcomes along with the rewards for the good work. Rewards are important so that the employees stay engaged and their work is in accordance with the way that promotes better care for the patients. Employees that want to work hard will also look to attain the different types of the rewards like the monetary and the non-monetary rewards (Lutwama, Roos Dolamo, 2013). There are different types of employees and their personal choice for the monetary and the non-monetary rewards vary. Employees when feel that being in a hospital that will highly provide all the scope of gaining the required exposure along with the career growth, then such employees will certainly remain committed to their work. Especially in an eme rgency ward, the senior emergency staff has the responsibility of overseeing the different types of patients and that too in large numbers. In such scenarios, often the senior emergency staff have to work for long hours and attain several patients at the same time. The emergency staffs have to deal with different types of complicated cases and during such events, the rewarding mechanisms play a major role in keeping the staffs motivated (Ibrar Khan, 2015). Human resource executive plays a major role here with them in integrating the reward mechanism it increases the quality of health care dispensed to the ailing patients and at the same time motivates the emergency staffs. Reward systems are implemented within the work and it leads to the effectiveness of the hospital emergency team that looks after the critical cases. It has been found that the satisfaction of the employees is highly affected by the reward practice in place. There are different types of employees that get motivated either by the monetary rewards or by the employee recognition. At the same time if the rewarding system is ineffective then it will impact the employee satisfaction and will also demotivate the employees. This will negatively impact the healthcare delivery of the senior emergency staff (Ibrar Khan, 2015). Alternative reward practices The employees that work in an emergency ward are the most versatile and capable of handling pressure during the critical cases. It is thus necessary for the human resource executive to reciprocate with the similar kind of reward that will be at par with the working capability of the emergency staffs. Especially there is a shortage of doctors in Australia and this is the reason that the emergency staffs face the extra burden of work pressure. In such situations, the rewards must be high in order to keep the doctors stay motivated and deliver the best. The health conditions of the patients that arrive in the emergency department demand critical care. Due to this reason, the senior emergency staff that work in such cases often have to handle the cases critically. Their decisions either to complete recovery or death of the patient (Bragard, Dupuis Fleet, 2015). Thus other than the rewards these senior emergency staffs need a different kind of reward system that will keep them motivated. Such rewards are leadership roles with respect to the complete overseeing the performance of the critical tasks; work as a mentor for the staffs that are working in an emergency ward; acclamation by the local government authorities. A senior emergency staff has the responsibility of overseeing too many patients in a clinical setting. This work pressure can be reduced by recruiting junior doctors which can effectively work with the guidance and under the leadership of the senior emergency staffs. This can effectively reduce the burden on these senior doctors and thus provide them with the greater satisfaction and less pressure and burnout during the work hours. The leadership role can effectively reduce the negative impact on the mental health of the employees (Seow, 2013). The next important can come in the form of mentorship. The senior emergency staff can also undertake the role of the mentor. This mentorship is only given to the senior emergency staffs that are the most hardworking and the follows the rules and the gives the highest priority to the health of the patients. The mentorship is a kind of the acclamation provided to the senior emergency staff that work in a clinical setup. This will help the new junior joiners to work effectively in an emergency ward, because to work in an emergency ward a greater coordination is required which can be achieved only when a team performs well (Flowerdew et al., 2012). The most important acclamation that can be provided to the senior emergency staff is an acclamation by a local government authority. This can effectively help in providing recognition to the senior emergency staffs that he needs to have due to his hard work. Recommendation In order to properly support/engage/reward the senior emergency staff, there is are certain recommendations which can be given to the hospital management, which are as follows: More doctors need to be recruited so that the work pressure can be eased from the existing senior emergency staffs. Other than providing the monetary rewards, there is a definite need to provide the senior emergency staffs with the recognition due to the critical and the hard work they do. Other than the new doctors, new staffs like the nurses and the clinical staffs also need to be recruited by the hospital management in order to divide the workload evenly among all the employees. The salary package can be hiked on a six-month basis after analysing the critical cases handled successfully. The scheme of flexible pay can be introduced into the system so as to maximise the effort put by the senior emergency staff. Flexible pay will help the senior emergency staff to earn more from solving the more critical cases (Kapelyushnikov, Kuznetsov Kuznetsova, 2012). Conclusion From the above study, it can be concluded that the hospitals in Australia are currently facing a shortage of the doctors. Due to this reason, the existing doctors are under immense pressure to work with the low number of the staffs. This has impacted negatively on the doctors of the rural areas and has affected their mental wellbeing. The doctors regularly come under immense pressure and are often not able to cope up with the same. The study also incorporates solutions from the perspective of a human resource executive. 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