Ecology of an emergency room
Ecology in a general sense is the examination of the components that comprise a larger system and observing how the components interact with or influence each other within the system. To take an ecological view is to recognize that in any given system, all pieces whether biotic or abiotic are connected in a web of interaction that impacts all the other pieces. For example, the wolves in Yellowstone impact the growth of the vegetation in the area well. One might be confused, because wolves are not at all know to routinely consume notable amounts of plants in their diets, and this is true. However, wolves do heavily influence the deer population in Yellowstone and act as a primary predator to regulate the deer population. Deer graze and consume the local vegetation and without a predator such as the wolf to maintain the population size, deer would breed excessively thereby overrun the landscape and eat much of the local plant life. In this simple example one can see how wolf impacts grass indirectly in the ecological web.
An ecological perspective of the world is important because it reminds us that each component of a system does not exist in isolation, rather it is shaped by all present factors as well. Think how a large rock in the ocean can be shaped by wind, water or even humans amongst numerous other things. It is not a singular entity apart from everything else, rather very much at the mercy of external influence. An ecological view can be handy in an attempt to better understand the larger world around us. Especially since an ecological view can be applied to any system.
One could examine the ecology of an emergency department to better understand why it functions the way it does. When an emergency department is busy, incoming individuals can feel frustrated if they have to wait. They may feel their injury is being ignored or the hospital staff is slow or inefficient, but there is much more to the situation and these assumptions are remarkably incorrect. The emergency department deals with an array of incoming injuries connected to many different individuals. The severity of the various injuries impact the waiting time of each patient, as the most critical injuries are attended to first. An individual with a dislocated knee will be behind incoming patients with broken bones or who are experiencing allergic reactions for example. The rate of which these patients are attended to is then dependent on the number of staff available. This could vary depending on if some staff are sick, if some staff quit, or if the hospital has cut hours to save money. Reasons for cutting hours could be due to the demand for improved equipment in radiology or corrupt intentions of higher level board members. In short, it becomes clear that there are many pieces to the emergency department which have an impact on each other. This is the basis of ecological thinking and its applications in our daily lives are essentially limitless. — Ian Kent