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Biomedical subjects

J G Bruhn

Publications and source records attributed to J G Bruhn.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Ethical issues in intervention outcomes.

This article discusses selected ethical issues involved with the outcomes of interventions. An intervention is a process of intrusion into value systems based on a relationship of mutual trust and shared expectations between the intervener and the participant. Too often, interveners focus on the outcome without considering the mediating variables that can influence the outcome; therefore, intervention outcomes may fail or be short-lived. Many ethical issues with respect to how interventions are designed and implemented can affect their success or failure.

Community Health Planning↗
PubMed2001

Being good and doing good: the culture of professionalism in the health professions.

The characteristics of being good and doing good are discussed in the current societal context of distrust, cynicism, and decreasing integrity and commitment. Health professionals choose being good and doing good as a career. Many reasons are given as to why professionalism has declined in the health professions: "the system," decreased individual rewards and personal satisfaction, and the loss of focus on the patient. The author suggests three levels of aggressive intervention--the professional organization, the organization one works for, and the individual--to revitalize good citizenship and professionalism.

Altruism↗
PubMed2001

Managing tough and easy organizational cultures.

Some organizations have cultures which are tough on members while others are easy. A tough culture would be expected to be out of touch with the values of its members and suppress value conflicts. An easy culture would be expected to be sensitive to the values of its members and deal with value conflict openly. The importance of value dynamics and transactions is discussed as the basic condition for toughness and easiness. The management of members who feel victimized by organizational values and perceptions is also discussed. Strategies for sustaining value relationships and value fulfillment in organizations undergoing change are presented.

Conflict, Psychological↗
PubMed2001

Equal partners: doctors and patients explore the limits of autonomy.

In recent decades medicine--like all social institutions--has fallen from public trust. Managed care has made third-party payers a partner in the physician-patient relationship. Advocate groups, some lawyers, and bioethicists have encouraged patients to demand a greater voice in medical decisions. Physicians and patients are forced to relate to each other in a narrower range, and more of the physician's actions are being dictated and standardized. Physicians are often seen as a threat to the patient's autonomy and believed to be too paternalistic, authoritarian, and too concerned with profit to be reliable partners. A review and synthesis of the literature supports the view that patients prefer to have decisional control over outcomes but leave technical decisions on how to achieve those outcomes to physicians. Good medical care is a process of having one's autonomy respected and knowing when to relinquish it. Promoting patient autonomy as an ultimate value in medicine rather than recognizing it as one value among others (such as caring, trust, and honesty) is an error. The task of medicine is not to banish paternalism, but to preserve kindness and respect for the patient as a person.

Decision Making↗
PubMed2000

Adhatoda vasica: a critical review of ethnopharmacological and toxicological data.

Adhatoda vasica (L.) Nees is a well-known plant drug in Ayurvedic and Unani medicine. It has been used for the treatment of various diseases and disorders, particularly for the respiratory tract ailments. During the last 20 years, several scientific reports on oxytocic and abortifacient effects of vasicine and alkaloid derived from the plant have appeared. This leads to questions concerning the safety of A. vasica as a herbal medicine. In this article, the major data on traditional uses as well as ethnopharmacological and toxicological studies, both published and unpublished, are reviewed and commented upon. The data have been evaluated from the point of view of correctness, reliability, relevance and importance for the overall evaluation of the safety of A. vasica.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Gynostemma pentaphyllum: identification of major sapogenins and differentiation from Panax species.

Four main dammarane-type aglycones of gypenosides, extracted from the aerial parts of Gynostemma pentaphyllum were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. By detecting these aglycones as well as the aglycones of ginsenosides, a difference in sapogenin composition between Gynostemma pentaphyllum and Panax species was observed, which can be used in the differentiation of these plant drugs.

Cucurbitaceae↗
PubMed1998

Managing crazy behavior in organizations.

Crazy behavior is an aspect of organizational life. This article examines the two sides of crazy behavior, positive and negative, and suggests guidelines for its management so that it does not become pathological or destructive to the competence of the organization. Crazy behavior is related to professional and ethical behavior, but the boundaries of craziness are often less clear than those for professional and ethical behavior. Therefore, crazy behavior is often tolerated, if not supported and encouraged, by the reactions of administrators.

Behavior↗
PubMed1997

Rethinking the future of tenure in the health professions: new wine in old bottles.

The purpose and meaning of tenure and the tenets surrounding it are not likely to change. The uses of tenure and accountability on the part of the giver and holder of tenure are both under scrutiny. Tenure or the process for attaining it is not appropriate for health professionals who intend to be providers of health care. Not everyone needs to be tenure to perform a quality service. The constraints of tenure for today's practicing health professionals are discussed.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed1996

The organization zoo: a fable.

In the parable that follows, we have exaggerated animal behavior to show the importance of ego niches that people make for themselves in organizations. The parable illustrates the difficulty supervisors have in juggling individual egos, organizational needs, and change. We are all familiar with the moral of this fable: ¿The more things change, the more they stay the same.¿

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMed1996

Creating an organizational climate for multiculturalism.

Multiculturism is an ideal goal for our society, its organizations, and its institutions, involving a continuous process of education and change within organizations. Multiculturalism begins with diversity and requires various steps to achieve changes in attitudes, behaviors, and values. The leadership of organizations must not only commit to diversification, but they must participate in it and reward its efforts. Diversification should be managed by creating a climate of open participation, feedback, and control at the lower organizational levels. To micromanage the process of becoming diverse increases resistance and paranoia and counters educational efforts.

Cultural Diversity↗
PubMed1996

Management by intimidation: "cooling out" perceived competitors.

Management by intimidation is not healthy, either for its victims or an organization. Intimidation is the style some managers use to keep potential competitors at bay, reminding them who holds the power. Intimidation creates fear within an organization and arouses a need for self-protection among its employees. Unfortunately, management styles often are not known or explored prior to hiring a chief executive officer (CEO). Since employees must adapt to a leader's style, this may mean that some have to leave the organization.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMed1996

Finding heroes and heroines: fads, fantasies, and foibles of search and screen committees.

Search and screen committees have many agendas other than finding candidates for a job vacancy. They are essentially political processes whereby special interest groups inside and outside the organization can express opinions, monitor diversity, and review and fine-tune the organizational culture with respect to planned change. Search committees reflect the fads of the institutional culture, have fantasies about the kinds of persons they will attract to the position, and commit foibles that may affect the outcome of the search.

Contract Services↗
PubMed1995

Organizational moles: information control and the acquisition of power and status.

All organizations have moles or informants who seek to acquire informal power and status within the organization by keeping supervisors and the chief executive officer informed about employees and their activities. If the leaders of an organization are insecure and distrustful, they value the information about the organization that moles provide. Moles survive organizational change because they are loyal first to themselves. Moles often are hardworking, productive people, but their net effect on the organization's moral is negative because they foster distrust and defensiveness among employees. Guidelines are offered to help identify possible moles so they can be avoided lest one become a victim to moles' methods.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMed1994

Was opium known in 18th dynasty ancient Egypt? An examination of materials from the tomb of the chief royal architect Kha.

Examination by microscopy, thin-layer chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography alone and combined with mass spectrometry, and radioimmunoassay methods of materials from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian chief royal architect Kha, who is believed to have died about 1405 BC, has shown that there is no morphine--and hence no opium--present. This finding casts doubt on the results of an earlier analysis. Tropane alkaloids are likewise absent. The significance of the present findings for the history of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum L., in the eastern Mediterranean region is discussed. Evidence (chemical, botanical, artefactual, and linguistic) for the supposed presence of the opium poppy and opium in Egypt in the Late Bronze Age is briefly reviewed. These considerations and the negative outcome of the present analyses mean that the earlier reported finding can no longer be accepted as evidence.

Egypt, Ancient↗
PubMed1994

Diagnosing the health of organizations.

The concept of a healthy organization is idealistic. Organizations are never fully stable, they never maximize their potential, and they never achieve complete harmony. It is a common myth that the leader determines an organization's health. It is how the psychodynamics of an organization are managed and the capacity of leaders and followers to repair broken relationships that influence an organization's health.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1993

Administrators who cannot let go: the super manager syndrome.

Super managers manage boundaries; leaders transcend boundaries. Super managers want to ensure their success and that of their organization by getting the various units in the organization to do their jobs well. They want to get the right individuals and groups together to get the job done. Leaders, on the other hand, tend to be more concerned with team development and total quality management, which is accomplished by crossing boundaries. The tasks of a leader are viewed as getting the right people together to get a job done, which might involve bringing people from different units together. As Hirschhorn has said, Today you want a different kind of team. As you supervise large numbers of people, and as rapid changes in product lines and technologies require you to rely on the initiatives of team members, you need to authorize individuals in the team to think for themselves, come up with new ideas, try alternative approaches--in other words be nonconformists. Perhaps the most important distinction between a leader and a super manager is that a leader can see the whole forest without becoming concerned with all the varieties of trees and their interaction at different points in time.

Adaptation, Psychological↗