Courage in Healthcare
A Necessary Virtue or Warning Sign?
With a view to promoting better patient outcomes, well-being for practitioners, and support for those who feel compelled to ‘speak out’ and challenge bad practice, Courage in Healthcare is an invaluable resource for any healthcare practitioner working in the NHS today, a rallying call and a practical guide.
For Rahman and Myers, courage is at the heart of the human condition – and, perhaps inevitably, at the heart of healthcare too. This thoughtful and inspiring book offers multiple perspectives on the courage required by patients, carers and healthcare workers. Anyone who cares about care they give – or receive – will find much here to reflect on.
This is an excellent, stimulating resource on the subject of courage in healthcare. The authors provide a comprehensive exploration of the subject of courage and its application in clinical practice, management and leadership at all levels in the healthcare system. The examples from practice provided throughout ensure that the theory is grounded in real life examples, helping the reader to understand actions which demonstrate the various definitions of courage as an integral element of everyday practice and importantly, impact on patient outcomes.
The authors have created a resource which will encourage all practitioners, managers and leaders to be more thoughtful about the impact of courage on the outcomes for patients, families, carers and the communities served.
Faced with a perfect storm of escalating demand, rising costs and rapid technological change, the need for effective leadership in 21st century health care has never been greater. This book breaks new ground in addressing the unexplored concept of courage in leadership. The authors adeptly combine evidence and experience to offer a variety of perspectives that speak to the challenges faced by health and social care professionals, managers and policy makers as well as patients, service users and carers. This book offers a rich, distinctive and thought-provoking analysis and deserves to be widely read.
In this thought-provoking book, Rahman and Myers dissect what courage means using carefully chosen real-life vignettes to illustrate key concepts. Reading it will prompt reflection on one’s own experiences and encourage new perspectives on one’s interactions with others involved in providing care. In light of recent failures of care, the concept of moral distress incurred by the need (perceived or actual) for the courage to speak up when things are wrong should prompt a thorough re- examination of the way the health service currently deals with this fundamental issue. For this reason alone, it deserves to be widely read.
