Book Review: "American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964"

A Review and Reflection on

“American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964”

by William Manchester

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

      -Douglas MacArthur

VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Volatility refers to the dynamism or the constant change while Uncertainty renders the lack of predictability. Complexity stresses entropy and chaos while Ambiguity argues diversity of literal and connotative meanings. A VUCA environment imposes an unparalleled or asymmetrical nature of global events and landscape.

Our world experiences this kind of environment for change in all aspects of our life is constant. Therefore, we are challenged to learn and possess innovative and flexible political will and cognitive skills. Our decisions should be adaptable in response to the uncertainty of occurring events. Though the way we address the arising complex problems, our solutions must be sophisticated or detailed yet easy to understand. We should constantly consider leadership, influence, natural phenomena, and resources as we enter in decision-making undertakings. Universally accepted values should never be compromised with the ever- changing and relative world. We need to be sensitive to the different cultural and lingual differences and to be respectful to the proper context.

These things should be inert in us. They should be applied beyond the pedagogical aspects in our schools and even in hospital settings; we must internalize on them or apply them in our lives. As a nurse leader, I think that serving as a mentor should be applied on the workplace, being a role model by doing my best and by doing my best I will imply that only the best is expected from my staff and of course providing it with freedom to question my methods so they can understand. By respecting on differences, I will give them the liberty to create their own way of working within the organization as long as they don’t hinder the rules of the organization.

Douglas MacArthur lived his life under a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. Communication has not yet reached its utmost level of accuracy and fidelity. Laws that should balance government affairs, civil society, and private life are still budding. This kind of life which our contemporary society now enjoys has created a relatively disarray.

But through the positive aspects or character of Douglas MacArthur, he was able to thrive and succeed. He relied on the undeviating values that had been established already centuries ago.

We can internalize on the Caesar-like character of Douglas MacArthur. His life was not only part of history of World War II, West Point Texas Military Academy, American politics, and Korean War but his legacy flourished in our civilization. As a nurse leader, having a positive character like Douglas MacArthur is very important to keep my staff motivated for them to perform well. This includes in dealing with their performance, stress, burnout, punctuality, and other factors that affects them. Supporting and understanding them in a way that it would be beneficial for them and also for the organization.

Nursing Leadership

Our goal is to ensure the development of the organization where we work in, by improving the quality of care that our patients are receiving, which we can do by applying various useful leadership qualities and styles in nursing. Also by having patient satisfaction, encouraging our staff to empathize patients, knowing their needs, and providing quality health care for their well-being are our goals.

 

 

 

 

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Dealing With Incivility In The Clinical Setting

Whether or not you realize it, bullying or incivility is everywhere. Including the workplace. No matter where you work, there is going to be that one individual that is very eager to see you fail. Their aim is to undermine and intimidate anyone who may be weaker than them. 

While senior or long employed nurses don't command newly hired nurses to do consequences, but they usually involve themselves in aggravating behaviours and irritating actions to observe how long these new nurses can stand into the unit. Harsh situations are already happening in nursing areas, this involves the failure to have uninterrupted meals or restroom breaks, they have no time to set some personal appointments. Due to fear of punishment, depressed and bullied nurses tend not to verbalize disappointment and grievance to nursing administration. The continuous shortage of nurses does not allow for the costly loss of nursing staff due to undesirable disrespect and incivility in the workplace. We all know that nursing management is very distressing, with safety of the patient and maximum care at the focus of decision making when observing and managing staff and staff interactions and cooperation. Nurse managers and staff nurses must become aware of incivility does not only affects nursing satisfaction, but also ultimately putting the patient safety at risk. I think that nurses who are experiencing bullying or incivility are hesitant to ask for help or ask questions resulting to increased possibility of errors in patient care. The nurse leader's sole responsibility is acquiring information and understanding knowledge regarding the common types of nurse bullying behaviors and the roots for these behaviours. Additionally, the awareness and understanding of nursing administration cause intolerance for negative treatment among peer groups and support for staff willing to speak against bullying or hazing. Zero tolerance of horizontal hostility in nursing is advantageous to the whole nursing system, moving towards improved staff satisfaction and morale and resulting in decreased nurse turnover rates. 

The journey of nursing towards reaching a goal of respect as a profession among members and other disciplines is lessened by horizontal hostility or simply incivility, nurse managers and nurses must undertake a new period of improvement. Nurses are caring, magnanimous individuals with the capability to think critically and make changes for the improvement of the profession and the safety of the patient. 

I also believe that nurses need to bring back the voice that was taken from them and speak their truth that the hid for a long time for the fear of penalty. It’s one of the nurse’s most powerful tool. In this kind of environment, it wouldn't seem like conflict and contest would be the solution to better nurse relations. I believe that it is all about breaking the code of silence. It guides her to define and say what she’s undergoing and the depression she is allowing, explain why it disturbs her, tell what she likes to change and alter and make it clear what the consequences are if she doesn't.  The backstabbing and hateful talk stops if nurses speak their side and go to the main root of the problem.

Assertiveness really guides us nurses to be more professional and that’s what we really are, professionals. Remember that you were not born to be bullied. You don’t deserve it. No one does. Don't blame yourself for the other person’s attitude towards you. In fact, this person may feel vulnerable or terrified by you, and may feel the need to drag you down.

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Book Review: The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society and Economy

Knowledge productivity was then considered as the border on achieving management as Peter F. Drucker’s said during his timne. He argued that someday, the society will work through their knowledge and not with their backs. It is good enough that Rick Wartzman clearly shown, with this book, the ideas and insights of Drucker on his talks and lectures. The book revealed today’s situation as what Drucker described during his time.

As quoted from Drucker on the beginning pages of the book, “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”, the book helped its readers to increase their knowledge, to be more engaged with the society and to be more productive constantly. The book explained the ideas of Drucker which is good enough because readers could easily visualize their current situations and realize what they are doing with their lives.


With the help of this book, people will learn, thus increase their knowledge. Wartzman thought of the book as a “tool” on achieving Drucker’s idea that knowledge would give big part on achieving proper management in the future.

Proper words have been used to explain clearly the points of the author to the people. Wartzman discussed the explanations of the different lectures of Drucker very well by extracting the real meaning Drucker has. It is good that Wartzman organized the lessons per chapter. Another factor which added to the goodness of the book is its systematic ways of identifying the essentials from not. Also, he made the book entertaining to its readers by relating them from the time during Drucker. The book let its readers feel like bringing the past today and having Drucker as an adviser or professor on a management class. One part that supports Wartzman feeding the imagination of its readers is when he briefly narrated the life of Peter F. Drucker at the beginning chapter of the book.

History helps the people on understanding today. It is also good that Wartzman relate the management of the past and the present. Through his ways of discussing today’s situation by dealing the past first, the readers can clearly see the differences of the both times and realize how knowledge affects the management of productivity the people have.

The book helped its readers to understand their current situations. It revealed them some reality points which unfold some questions in their mind. The book answered why poverty do exists and how management could cure or help the society today. Good management has something to do with the improvement of the societal status. As what has been discussed in the book, it affects the man’s way of thinking, action and response on the issues (problems) they would encounter. Wartzman can be considered as good writer as he explained, through this book, the visions and perspective of Drucker who is known as someone who has significance with his words.

The knowledge being taught before such as Peter F. Drucker’s lessons helped a lot as it serves as a tool of knowing the root cause of the current issues people experience today. The book reached its goal on touching human minds by bringing the past to the present.

 Nursing Administration

As a nurse manager, a lot of qualities should be applied on the workplace. To have a good management of people and good management of productivity, having the idea and knowledge of the skills about management is the best tool in order to have a developmental organization. As a nurse manager, being visionary is a very important aspect. For planning, relating it with Wartzman, dealing with the organization’s history would help me to strategic plan for my organization, making sure that it is process oriented, with purpose, and future directed. In organizing and staffing, setting goals for my staff on a daily weekly monthly basis and making sure that they will meet these goals. In directing, I know that as nurse manager I should promote teamwork within my staff as we also have to work with doctors, dieticians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. In evaluation, performance of my staff in the workplace is an important factor to deal with, making sure that they provide good quality care to patients should be emphasized. I believe that performance evaluations is a great tool wherein I as a nurse manager has the opportunity to connect in a deeper level with my staff, making sure that I deal with one nurse at a time, for them to have a better understanding in the unit and for me to have a better understanding on their position and concerns. Being a good listener, taking suggestions from the staff which I know will enhance the work quality of my team are factors in building a good positive relationship with them.

To sum it up, being a nurse manager should have a vision to make things better and be committed enough to see that all the organizational goals are met in a span of time and by having a good management on the organization and giving emphasis on patient safety and quality care

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