Emmanuel Kufre Uko
University Of Calabar, Nigeria
Title: Disharmony and lack of teamwork among health professionals; an emerging challenge in the management of blood disorders in Nigeria
Biography
Biography: Emmanuel Kufre Uko
Abstract
Primary hematologic diseases are common in the aggregate but hematologic manifestations secondary to the disease occur even more frequently. Patient with Blood disorder in Nigeria make about 1: 1000 ratio of overall patients that visit the outpatients department of Nigerian hospitals. Blood disorders basically can affect Red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the body tissues; White blood cells which fight infections; and Platelet which help blood to clot. Blood disorder can also affect the liquid portion of the blood cell plasma. Harmony is an agreement or being in one accord. It is a pleasing combination of elements that makes things successful, while a team is a group of people involved in the same activity or work. However with harmonious agreement, a group of health professionals involved in the management of blood disorders could accomplish a better patient recovery outcome. Health professionals in Nigeria include: Medical Doctors, Medical Laboratory Scientist, Nurses, Physiotherapists, Radiologists/Radiographers, Occupational Therapist, Pharmacists, Social care professionals, Cleaners etc. Team work cannot be accomplished in the absence of disharmony. Global best practice advocates that patient management through team work and harmonious working relationship between health professionals results in better patient outcomes. Lack of harmony and team work among health workers have been reported as the greatest factor resulting in unproductive teams. Reports show that there is lack of harmony and teamwork among health professionals in Nigeria. This is traceable to many factors which include, struggle for supremacy “who is who” and “who is above who” in our hospitals. Self glorification, superiority, ego, self realisation and feeling of being an island of knowledge are all root causes of disharmony in the Nigerian health sector. Literature and reports from previous studies indicate that harmony among health workers is very vital to improving health indices. The aim of this paper is to have in-depth look at the scope of harmony and teamwork among health workers in Nigeria in the management of blood disorders, arranging them in categories that cover the full array of human concerns, from professionalism to the materialism and from corporate to the personal agenda. However, it is concluded that the degree of disharmony among health professionals in Nigerian Health care system is censorious. This has translated into poor team working, resulting in poor patients’ management.