Work Pressure and Challenges among Medical Doctors in Private Clinic Dissertation

Work Pressure and Challenges among Medical Doctors in Private Clinic in Hong Kong - Dissertation Example The healthcare system of Hong Kong is considered to be almost similar with the best hospitals in Asian region such as Singapore, Malaysia as well as Thailand. Primary as well as secondary medical services are offered to the patients by these hospitals. Most of the people tend to access these facilities primarily via their medical insurance, either held by them personally or by means of their employment (Taylor, 2012). It has been observed that the stressful life of doctors and nurses in Hong Kong makes them prone to psychological exhaustion in terms of depression, especially in the private sector. Depression is considered to be one of the most significant health issues because of its associated result. As per the anticipation of the World Health Organisation, by the end of the year 2020, depression is likely to become the second main reason behind dysfunction within workplaces, including the healthcare sector, playing a major role towards the increasing ratio of psychological ill-hea lth in the world population owing to the fact that traumatic life events normally lead to psychological indications. Hence, it can be affirmed that if the level of stress is quite high then in such circumstances, there are greater chances of psychological indications (Bayati, Beigi & Salehi, 2009). The chief objective of the paper has been to evaluate the work pressure and challenges faced by the medical doctors in private clinics in Hong Kong. It also aims to gauge the levels of occupational stress among the doctors who are working at private clinics followed by the analysis of their depression levels owing to high work pressure impacting their job performance and satisfaction level. The study also attempts to measure the adverse effects of intensive workload on doctors working in private clinics by means of evaluation of the depressive disorders caused by extensive workloads. In this regards, the paper further elaborates on The Karaek Job-Demands Control Model (1979), The Effort-R eward Imbalance Model and Job Demands-Resources Model. Level of Care Offered By Private Sectors Hong Kong has about 12 major private hospitals among which 4 hospitals are featured as profit making hospitals while 8 hospitals are regarded to be functioning as non-profit making concerns. One of the common characteristics among these healthcare concerns is that all the private hospitals primarily tend to rely upon outside doctors for rendering high quality services to the admitted patients (Gauld & Gould, 2002). It can be mentioned in this regards that the private hospitals of Hong Kong do not have spare capacity in order to meet the additional demands. The reason behind this fact is that the ‘bed occupancy rates’ of these hospitals is quite high (Industry HK, 2012). In the recent years, lack of manpower in the private hospitals of Hong Kong was found to be a significant problem that forced the hospital authorities to take several measures in terms of costs and quality ser vices. According to the evaluation done by the Public Doctor Association, the major causes of the problem include heavy workload pressures on the professionals, poor promotion prospects along with the inconsistency in the financial reward system taking place amid the public institutions. This in turn leads to excessive flow of the doctors in the private sector. Such issues are further observed to cause stress among the doctors, ultimately giving rise to depression which in turn hampers the quality of service or rather medical support rendered by them (Wong, 2008). Contextually, it can be revealed that private healthcare sector

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 Research Paper

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 - Research Paper Example A whistleblower is a person who makes a disclosure that evidence improper or illegal activities in an employment setting (Whitaker, P1). On the other hand, King defines the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 as a United States of America’s federal law that protects federal whistleblowers or government employees who report any misconduct by a federal agency. An example of a famous whistleblower was Jeffrey Wigand, Brown & Williamson’s former research and development vice president in 1966, who disclosed that cigarette companies’ executives were aware of the fact that cigarettes were addictive and increased the amount of nicotine deliberately to make them even more addictive (King, para5). The Whistleblower Protection Act/WPA was enacted in 1989, following apparent weaknesses in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, which was an earlier attempt to protect whistleblowers. This law led to the creation of the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates complaints from government employees that they received punishment after reporting about abuse, fraud or waste in their agencies to Congress. This office has jurisdiction over whistleblower reprisal allegations that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission employees make. The Congress passed the Act with the intention of strengthening and improving Federal employees’ rights protection, to end retaliation and to aid in the eradication of unlawful activity within the government. It mandates that workers should not go through adverse consequences because of personnel practices that are prohibited  and establishes that the Office of Special Counsel’s primary role is protecting workers, particularly whistleblowers, from forbidden personnel practices.