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Susan Carr
The results of a joint study by The Studer Group and the Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy (CPPA) at Vanderbilt University confirm that disruptive behavior pervades healthcare organizations and contributes to staff turnover.
More than 1,500 healthcare professionals participated in the study in May and June 2009, nearly one year after The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert warning that “intimidating and disruptive” behaviors undermine the safety and quality of healthcare and issuing new recommendations and standards. Participants were solicited for the study by blog and email.
James Pichert, PhD, co-director of the CPPA, notes that more than three-quarters of the respondents were leaders, “not the front-line employees who have understandably and rightly been the subject of many previous studies.” Specifically, 76.6% of the respondents reported that they held leadership roles in their organization, with titles ranging from supervisor, manager, and director (67.6%) on up (9.0% reported being CEO, chief officers, chief or chair of service, or president/VPs).
Seventy-five percent of respondents stated that they have been targets of unprofessional behavior in the past 24 months — 61% of male respondents and 78% of females. In addition to the 25.9% who left a previous job because of unprofessional behavior, another 15.1% transferred to a different department.
The study included 64 questions and provides data on reporting and addressing disruptive behavior, organizational policies, and barriers to addressing problems. Study results and resources are available on the Studer Group web site.
Further Reading
PSQH has published two articles about disruptive behavior: “Disruptive Clinician Behavior: A Persistent Threat to Patient Safety” by Porto and Lauve, and “Effective Management Strategies for Disruptive Behavior” by Porto and Deen.
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