Title: Discussion 1
Course: HCP 0796 Patient Care Technician > Section: Module 1

The Health Care Industry and Your Role

Read the Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1 in the textbook. Answer the following 10 questions in the form of a discussion post.

Remember, these questions are what you would do in this situation and there are no really right or wrong answers. This means that you should answer the way you really feel it should be handled and not the way you think I want you to respond. This initial post is due by Thursday at 11:59pm.

You should then respond to at least two of your classmates' initial posts with whether you agree or disagree and why. These posts are to promote further discussion so make sure that your response to your fellow classmates sttimulates discussion. Your initial post should be no less than 250 words and your responses to a classmate should be no less than 175 words to receive credit.

1. You were out with friends until very late last night and had to report to work this morning at 0700. You know your coworkers won't arrive for another half hour as they are always late to work. You have received report from the off going shift and completed visual rounds on your patients. You know that if you get just one large cup of coffee this morning it will keep you going until lunch time when you can get another. You are struggling with fatigue. You've still have just enough time for a quick run to the coffee shop before your coworkers arrive for the shift. What are you going to do?

2. You promised your coworkers you'd work the day shift on Thanksgiving so they could be home with their families because you do not have any family locally and have not made any plans. Then two days before the holiday, your grandparents from Oregon call to say they'd like to see you on Thanksgiving Day for lunch as they pass through your area on their travels. You haven't seen your grandparents in three years because you cannot afford to fly to Oregon due to the tough economic times but they are in their 80's and may not have many years left in their lives. What are you going to do?

3. You have an appointmnet with your supervisor next week to review the results of your annual performance evaluation. You overhear one of your coworkers telling another person that they gave you a low score on your 360-degree feedback evaluation because you refused to trade shifts with her over New Year's weekend. This peer feedback accounts for 30% of your overall evaluation and if you score less than a 70% you are placed on probabtionary status as an employee. What are you going to do?

4. Your shift ends in 30 minutes and you've got about 30 minutes of work left to do at least. Due to the fact that it has been a very busy shift with several emergencies and two new admissions to your floor, you were unable to take your afternoon 15 minute break. The work that you have left to do is not required but yet things that you told your patients you would do for them. You are tired, thirsty, and you have an aching lower back from all of the lifting and being on your feet. What are you going to do?

5. Your supervisor asks you and two of your coworkers to proofread a financial report to make sure that the calculations are correct. You know that math is not your strongest area. Your coworkers have already reviewed the document and found no errors. You waited until the last minute to start reviewing the material and now it's time for you to go home. Due to the fact that math is difficult for you, you know that it will take you much longer than your coworkers to review the document. What are you going to do?

6. You are down in the business office of your facility to turn in an overtime form for the double shift you pulled this past weekend. You overhear a purchasing agent talking on the telephone with a salesperson from a local computer company. She offers to buy 15 new computers for your facility if the salesperson will also agree to sell her son a computer at the same quantity discount. The purchasing agent has been your friend since elementary school and you have lunch together at least once a week. Your children are friends and often have sleep-overs together. What are you going to do?

7. Your unit is extremly short handed due to budget cuts and call-in's. You are asked to assist the ward clerk with inputting insurance claim forms as part of your job assignment for the day. The ward clerk tells you to enter a code on an insurance claim form that she knows is not correct. If you enter the incorrect code that she tells you to, the facility will receive more money from the insurance company than it would if you enter the correct code. The ward clerk is best friend with your supervisor and they are also related. The codes mean similar diagnosises but one requires a registered nurses daily care and one requires evaluation by the registered nurse once a week only. What are you going to do?

8. One of your neighbors is admitted to the unit where you work. Your mother calls to tell you that she heard in church that the neighbor has a communicable disease and may have infected the entire church congregation including her. Because you work on the unit and have access to the records, your mother asks you to find out whether the rumor is true or not. You did overhear in report that the patient has TB. What are you going to do?

9. A new vital signs monitor is implemented on your facility that requires patient data put inputted into the unit before taking each patients vital signs. It also submits the information directly to the nurse and the covering physician to ensure vital signs are closely monitored during treatment. You missed the in-service session when everyone gets trained on how to operate it because you were out sick. The next day you are assigned to the PACU to monitor vital signs as they had several call-in's and are very short handed with a large number of surgeries scheduled for the day. When you arrive in PACU, there are two patients coming out of the OR and the nurse tells you to take their vital signs every five minutes while she goes to the pharmacy to get more pain medications to cover the rest of the patients. What are you going to do?

10. A coworker invites you to a party that they are having this weekend at their house. When you arrive at the party your coworkers start complaining about the low wages they receive. They also begin telling a group of people who do not work at the facility but are attending the party, that one of the surgeons at the facility made a mistake in surgery last week and lied to the patient's family to try to cover it up. You do not know who these group of stangers are but you are a fairly new employee of the facility and are just getting to know your coworkers. What are you going to do?