Nurse Scapegoats: Why are they important?
One of the most interesting cultures in nursing is scapegoating. One would say that this subculture would cause enchantment to the scapegoater and scapegoatee. According to the Scapegoat Society, “Scapegoating is a hostile social - psychological discrediting routine by which people move blame and responsibility away from themselves and towards a target person or group. It is also a practice by which angry feelings and feelings of hostility may be projected, via inappropriate accusation, towards others. The target feels wrongly persecuted and receives misplaced vilification, blame and criticism; he is likely to suffer rejection from those who the perpetrator seeks to influence.” In the healthcare industry, it is inevitable to deviate from standards of care and leadership. Scapegoating is one of the best ways to relieve the blame from oneself and blame the most vilifiable group. Such process is important to people in the places of position and leadership. It is also important to patients and nurses. Hence, it is reasonable to say that the role of nurses as scapegoats is vital.
One may have heard the expression of nurses eating their young. Nurses scapegoating on other nurses are also indispensable and irreplaceable part of the profession. For instance, the PICC line of a patient clogged. One of the many reasons of a clogged line is forgetting flushes on 10 cc saline. If the nurse has a preceptee, the most likely to be blamed is the preceptee instead of the nurse also assigned to the patient. The process of scapegoating is essential in this situation because this would mean that the fault is of the preceptee and not the preceptor. The preceptee must expect an incident report write-up. Since scapegoating would protect the more experienced RN and would transfer the blame to the preceptee, it is reasonable to say that the role of nurses as scapegoats is important.
One use of scapegoating is by physicians. For instance, when the equipment such as chairs, tables are inadequate in a unit, nurses would be the scapegoats. When the equipment is inadequate, the physicians will have no space to sit down and write orders. As a result, the physicians are outraged by the scarcity of chairs and blame the nurses. This is where it becomes creative. The physicians would argue that there is no space to sit down because the nurses are chitchatting and invading their space in the unit. Discredit the name: “nurses’ station.” The physicians have to write orders. This situation proves the role of nurses as scapegoats is important. In this process, the administration has not supplied enough chairs and enough workplace. As a strategy, such inadequacy must be distorted and the blame must be transferred. The nurses chitchatting would be the best rationale for not having enough work space and chairs. This seems to be a brilliant and methodical. Hence, it is reasonable to say that the role of nurses as scapegoats is important.
It is not just the people from the higher ups had perfected the craft of nurse scapegoating, but also the patient themselves. After the nurse has done the hardwork in maintaining the standards of care and working professionally for their therapeutic recovery, one can say that one appreciative token would be to blame the nurses for any inadequacy. For instance, the family of the patient cannot accept the new diagnosis of an ailment. The most likely tendency is to project those ill feelings so that the family and the patient can cope. Projection is one of the components of nurse scapegoating. Since nurse scapegoating will likely help the patient in coping, it is reasonable to say the nurses are helping unconsciously in the process. Hence, it is reasonable to say that the role of nurses as scapegoats is important.
No matter what, it would seem viable that scapegoating is essential to institution. Especially in an industry where fault and errors should be minimal, this would justify the subculture of scapegoating. Hence, it is reasonable that the role of nurses as scapegoats is important.
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