How Do Medical Personnel Reflect on the Role and Importance of Superstitions in Nursing: An Analysis of the Potential Benefits and Concerns

• Main Authors: Christopher Ternosky, 祈睿思
• Other Authors: David McConville
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5e993c

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 人力資源管理全英語碩士學位學程 === 107 === This study qualitatively explores how Taiwanese hospital employees utilize superstitions in the workplace. Taiwan has a rich history and culture of superstitions that are still present today. Some of these superstitions are unique to the hospital setting. For example, many employees will avoid eating pineapple out of fear of increasing their busyness or workload. Previous research has looked at Taiwanese nurses, but none have considered superstitious use among other hospital workers. This study builds on previous research by including a broader range of hospital employees. After conducting fifteen semi-structured interviews, themes were identified from the data. Several themes emerged to exlpain how employees arrived at their superstitions [as defined by Womack, 1992. Also see Appendix A]. These include social pressure, groupthink, and logical fallacies. Regarding employee''s perceptions of impact, key themes related to stress, the need for control, illusory pattern perception, cognitive dissonance, and shaming. This study may be useful for nurses, doctors and managers of hospital employees to (a) make sense of why superstitions seem to be so common in Taiwanese hospitals and (b) the possible implications of these superstitious beliefs.