Confronting Sexual Harassment
You are a new female employee at Valley Medical Center’s intensive care unit and love your job. Although only 25 years old, you have been a nurse for 4 years, and the last 2 years were spent in a small critical care unit in a rural hospital. You work the 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM shift. Ever since you came to work there, one of the male physicians, Dr. Long, has been especially attentive to you. At first, you were flattered, but more recently, you have become uncomfortable around him. He sometimes touches you and seems to be flirting with you. You have no romantic interest in him and know that he is married. Last night, he asked you to meet him for an after-work drink and you refused. He is a very powerful man in the unit, and you do not want to alienate him, but you are becoming increasingly troubled by his behavior.
Today, you went to your shift charge nurse and explained how you felt. In response, the nurse said, “Oh, he likes to flirt with all the new staff, but he’s perfectly harmless.” These comments did not make you feel better. At approximately 7:00 PM, Dr. Long came to the unit and cornered you again in a comatose patient’s room and asked you out. You said no again, and you are feeling more anxious because of his behavior.
ASSIGNMENT:
- Outline an appropriate course of action.
- What options can you identify? What is your responsibility?
- What are the driving and restraining forces for action? What support systems for action can you identify?
- What responsibility does the organization have? Be creative and think beyond the obvious. Be able to support your decisions.
Leadership in Nursing Discussion
Student’s Name
University
Course
Professor
Date
Leadership in Nursing Discussion
Confronting Sexual Harassment
A powerful headship in nursing is not just a sensible quality but a necessity for offering exceptional patient care and driving positive change within the healthcare industry. Leadership in nursing is a vital element that ensures that maximum-quality care is provided to patients (Al‐Ajarmeh et al., 2022). Potent leadership entails being capable of inspiring, encouraging, and guiding an individual towards a common goal. In nursing, headship can take on many sorts, like clinical leadership, administrative headship, including educational leadership. Clinical leadership entails being capable of making sound clinical decisions, care coordination, and ensuring patient safety (Stanley et al., 2022). Administrative leadership entails resource management, policies and procedures creation, and staff overseeing. Educational headship entails edifying and tutoring future nurses, enhancing lifelong learning, and promoting evidence-based practice. Potent nursing headship also entails communicating effectively, building a correlation with patients and their families, and working collaboratively with other healthcare professionals. Headship in nursing is vital in enhancing a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous enhancement in patient care. This paper will review a case study on confronting sexual harassment for a female employee at Valley Medical Center’s intensive care unit who loved her job. From the case study, the paper will outline the appropriate course of action, the options to identify one’s responsibility, the driving and restraining force for action, and the organization’s responsibility.
An Appropriate Course of Action
As a nurse, it is essential to range the safety and well-being of patients and fellow workers. Accordingly, in such a situation, it is vital to confront Dr. Long’s behavior and take suitable action to ensure that it comes to an end. The first step would be to tabulate any occurrence of harassment involving the date, time, location, and details of the experience (Hatef et al., 2019). It is also essential to report such kind of behavior to a supervisor or human resources official who can institute an investigation and offer support. It can include avuncular or legal resources if necessary. It is vital to recall that sexual harassment is not admissible behavior, and it is the accountability of all staff to maintain a safe and respectful workplace. If Dr. Long’s behavior progresses, involving external authorities, like law enforcement or regulatory bodies, may be appropriate. In the meantime, it is essential to range self-care and look for support from trusted friends or workmates. Assaulting sexual harassment is never simple, but certifying a safe and supportive workplace for all staff and patients is appropriate.
Options to Identify the Situation and One’s Responsibility
In such a situation, numerous options can be taken into account, and one of the options is to confront Dr. Long directly and elucidate that his behavior is making one uncomfortable and that it must come to an end. A second option is to disclose the behavior to a supervisor or human resources spokesperson, who can institute an investigation and offer support (Chelladurai & Kim, 2022). Pursuing legal advice and including external authorities if appropriate is also feasible. Nevertheless, it is essential to recall that as a victim of harassment, the accountability does not lie with an individual to solve the issue. The accountability lies with the institution and its leadership to develop a safe and respectful workplace free of harassment. Accordingly, disclosing the behavior and pursuing support from trusted workmates, friends, and counselors is vital. It is crucial to range self-care and take steps to ensure personal safety, like avoiding being alone with the perpetrator. Sexual harassment is never bearable behavior, and it is the accountability of everyone to speak out against it developing a safe and supportive habitat for all staff and patients.
The Driving and Restraining Forces for Action
The driving forces of action in such a situation are the discomposure and anxiety that the nurse feels as an outcome of Dr. Long’s behavior towards her. She lacks romantic interest in him, making her uncomfortable by touching and teasing her. In addition, his commanding position in the unit makes her feel confined and powerless to overcome the situation. The constraining forces of action are the fear of estranging Dr. Long and the possible upshots of disclosing his behavior, like retaliation or a negative effect on her job. There are numerous support systems for action that the nurse may use in such a situation. Firstly, she has already taken an essential step by speaking to her shift charge nurse about her inconvenience (Gupta & Garg, 2020). Accordingly, the charge nurse’s reaction was contemptuous, so the nurse may require to develop her concerns to a higher authority, like the unit manager or the facility’s human resources department. In addition, she could seek support from her workmates, friends, and family members to assist her process her feelings and developing a plan of action. It may also be essential for her to research her employee rights and the facility’s policies on environmental harassment, as she is well informed if she decides to disclose Dr. Long’s behavior. She could also contemplate pursuing professional counseling or therapy to enable her to subsist with the stress and anxiety of the circumstance
The Organization’s Responsibility
The institution, Valley Medical Center, must provide a safe and respectful workplace for all workers. This involves protecting workers from harassment and ensuring they feel comfortable disclosing any situations of harassment without fearing retaliation (Pineiro & Kitada, 2018). In such a particular scenario, the organization must take immediate action addressing the behavior of Dr. Long, as he is involved in inappropriate and possibly illegal conduct towards a staff member. The institution must have clear policies concerning sexual harassment, ensuring that all workers are educated on the policies. They should have a comprehensible process for investigating and disclosing instances of harassment (Jacobson & Eaton, 2018). In this case, the institution has to investigate Dr. Long’s behavior, taking nessesally disciplinary action if appropriate, involving potentially ending his employment if his behavior is found to be in contravention of the organization’s policies. Additionally, the institution should offer support to the victim of the harassment, involving ingress to counseling platforms and accommodations to ensure her safety and well-being. The institution must also take action to counteract counterbalance incidents from happening in the future, like conducting regular training sessions on sexual harassment prevention and developing a culture of respect and professionalism in the workplace. Such steps can enable the institution to demonstrate its dedication to developing a safe and supportive work environment for all workers.
Conclusion
The circumstance of harassment by an influential male physician towards a new female worker in the intensive care unit at Valley Medical Center is a sincere concern to be addressed on time. As an accountable nurse, the employee should disclose the incident to the organization’s human resources department or the high authority. There are numerous options available to the worker involving pursuing legal advice, filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and challenging the physician with the assistance of a senior workmate. The driving force for action ensures a safe and professional work environment for all workers, while the constraining force is the fear of retaliation or negative upshots. Support systems for action may entail counseling platforms for the worker, advocacy groups, and employee unions. The institution must provide a harassment-free workplace, take appropriate action to investigate the circumstance, offer support to the worker, taking disciplinary action against the perpetrator. It is essential to range the worker’s well-being, addressing the problem with no tolerance towards any form of harassment in the workplace.
References
Al‐Ajarmeh, D. O., Rayan, A. H., Eshah, N. F., & Al‐Hamdan, Z. M. (2022). Nurse–nurse collaboration and performance among nurses in intensive care units. Nursing in Critical Care, 27(6), 747-755. https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.12745
Chelladurai, P., & Kim, A. C. H. (2022). Human resource management in sport and recreation. Human Kinetics.
Gupta, D., & Garg, J. (2020). Sexual harassment at workplace. International Journal of Legal Science and Innovation.
Hatef, E., Rouhizadeh, M., Tia, I., Lasser, E., Hill-Briggs, F., Marsteller, J., & Kharrazi, H. (2019). Assessing the availability of data on social and behavioral determinants in structured and unstructured electronic health records: a retrospective analysis of a multilevel health care system. JMIR medical informatics, 7(3), e13802.
Jacobson, R. K., & Eaton, A. A. (2018). How organizational policies influence bystander likelihood of reporting moderate and severe sexual harassment at work. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 30, 37-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-017-9309-1
Pineiro, L. C., & Kitada, M. (2020). Sexual harassment and women seafarers: The role of laws and policies to ensure occupational safety & health. Marine Policy, 117, 103938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.103938
Stanley, D., Bennett, C. L., & James, A. H. (Eds.). (2022). Clinical leadership in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.
If you are having challenges with writing your nursing essay either because of lack of time or not knowing where to start, you can order your paper here