Milgrams Theory and the Failure to Raise Concerns in Healthcare

FAILURE TO RAISE CONCERNS IN HEALTHCARE
Name of Student
Course
Name of Professor
University
Date
Failure to Raise Concerns in Healthcare Introduction Communication plays an important role in determining the outcome of patient health in a facility. However, there is an increasingly large number of health practitioners and patients that fail to speak when they encounter a problem (Umberfield et al., 2019; Nembhard et al., 2015). As a result, communication failure has evolved to become a leading cause of poor health outcomes and, ultimately, the death of patients (Walker, 2022). Understanding this phenomenon is therefore essential in developing the right approach to overcome these challenges in the industry. Milgram’s (1963) study on obedience examined the extent to which people could be influenced to perform actions that would harm others. Understanding the psychology in decision-making in specific contexts can help comprehend the underlying factors that cause unexplained actions. Health care practitioners have a duty of care to their patients to inform them of all matters pertaining to their wellbeing. However, this is not always the case when a mistake happens during the course of treatment. James (2013) highlights that more than 400,000 deaths per year occur in the United States due to preventable adverse events by health care practitioners. The human factor in the errors is attributed to aspects of wrong documentation of patient data, errors in medication and the interchange of patients (Brown et al., 2022). More so, it is also notable that patients fail to report some symptoms or reactions to medication, thus increasing the probability of adverse events occurring. As a result, such preventable deaths lead to the impairment of the patients and, in some cases, death. Milgram’s 1963 Study on Obedience             According to Milgram (1963), obedience is defined as a mechanism tied to an individual’s psychology, linking their actions to a specified political action. The experiment conducted involved ordering a naïve subject into punishing a victim through electric shocks. In this case, the severity of the voltage delivered to the victim increases to a maximum set value based on instructions given to the subject. Consequently, the researcher wanted to find out the extent to which an individual could “obey” instructions provided to him to hurt another person.             The findings of the experiment showed that human tendencies were abandoned in the situation where the subject was instructed to perform the actions. This means that despite the knowledge of the consequences to the victim, the subjects were still willing to continue with the experiment until a certain point (Milgram, 1963). While the researcher had no overarching power to force the subjects to perform as commanded, the subjects still went on with the experiment. Apart from that, a significant amount of tension was generated in the subjects during the procedure. Despite them developing a conscience and seemingly displaying emotional distress from the encounter, they continued to increase the voltage when ...