ANSWER:
Ethical Dilemmas
Introduction
Ethical codes are essential in the nursing field of practice. Every organization must therefore uphold ethical practices. Moral standards provide guidelines for acceptable behavior in nursing practices. Ethical dilemma reduces the efficiency of services offered to a client. Ethical issues happen when a difficult choice between two or more options is presented, neither of which resolves the problem according to the work standards. The primary purpose of this paper is to describe the procedures for solving ethical practice in the workplace. The report also analyses a range of severity model about ethical practices in the workplace.
Steps in Handling Ethical Dilemmas
There exist several situations that result in the display of unethical practices in the workplace. According to a research survey, more than half of all workers have experienced some form of corrupt practice in the workplace (Choi, So & Ko, 2019). However, the frequency of unethical practices should not be condoned and effectively be dealt with to avoid any further consequences. Unethical practices have severe consequences to both an employee and the organization.
To avoid loss of credibility, it is therefore vital to deal with the unacceptable practices effectively. In case I witness unethical practices in the organization, I would first follow the organization’s procedure on reporting the behavior. For instance, if I detect employee bribery, I would gather important information on the organizational policies and who to report to and where. The next step would be to gather enough evidence of the malpractice to present to the authorities. The process would involve documenting the whole incident as it occurred to avoid false accusation. Also, I would identify witnesses to the incidences to back me up against the illegal practice.
The actions taken against an individual engaging in unethical practices should depend on the severity of the ultimate consequences. The disciplinary committee should take different forms of measures to an individual who commits a small unethical practice compared to an action that has a severe implication. For example, more severe activities that could jeopardize the organization’s productivity should be handled more severely. For instance, an individual who takes another person’s work credit should have a more severe punishment from a colleague who steals the company’s revenue.
Common Unethical Practices
Despite the emphasis on the importance of ethics in an organization, the malpractice is continuously on the rise in the country. Unethical practices have different perception, tolerance and acceptance. Several factors contribute to the justification and general approval of some corrupt practices. Lack of a clear and detailed employee handbook is the major contributor to accepting some level of unethical practices. The employee handbook guides the workers in an organization on the appropriate ways to conduct themselves in the workplace (Choi, So & Ko, 2019).
Social influence is the main reason for the justification of specific unethical practice and the rejection of others. Some unethical practices are acceptable because their effects provide members with the opportunity to maintain and improve their relationship. According to Choi, workers tend to imitate a colleague’s unethical practices if the action results in positive outcomes (Choi, So & Ko, 2019).
Besides, some immoral practices are regarded by nurses as light and acceptable due to their less severe consequences than others. For example, unethical practices complaints from clients are taken more seriously than those from employers (Hammond, & Palmer, 2021). This freedom leaves room for the acceptance of some unethical practices in the workplace. Employers and workers tend to uphold respect and other social values to clients compared to their colleagues.
Lack of positive examples from the organization leadership is another contributor to unethical acceptance. Employees tend to imitate their employers and their team leaders. Exposure to leaders who benefit from unethical practices also increases acceptance of certain practices. For example, when an employer gains from lying to clients and withholding critical information about a procedure or product, other organization members will follow suit.
The availability of justification for unethical practices influences the acceptance of specific exercises. When the employers and the employees minimize unethical practices, the disengagement of moral traditions occur (Hammond, & Palmer, 2021). For example, dishonesty enables an employee to justify their reasons for misconduct, such as reporting late.
Another reason people tend to accept some unethical practice is the pressure to deliver unrealistic performance or targets. According to past studies, workers tend to deviate from the normal and acceptable practices as long as is has a positive output in the company (Hammond, & Palmer, 2021). For example, an employee could collaborate with others to sell a harmful product to the consumer as long as they have made huge profits.
Workers are accepting several potential unethical practices in the organizations. They include dishonesty, bullying, employee theft, misuse of a company’s resources and abusive behavior (McLennan, Ryan, & Randall, 2018). These vices have become prevalent due to the reduced frequency of employee training on the importance of upholding ethics in counselling.
Severity Model for Ethical Practices
Nursing counselling practices are guided by five main principles, justice, autonomy, beneficence, fidelity and nonmaleficence (McLennan, Ryan, & Randall, 2018). The best continuum for ethical practices can be summarized as follows: positive client outcomes, which is the most critical, then promotion of moral awareness to counsellors, identifying morally acceptable actions, and effective response to unethical practices.
Effective counselling improves patient outcome and allows the facilitation of behavioral change (Hammond, & Palmer, 2021). The model advocates for adopting ethical practices such as honesty and autonomy to improve patients overall mental health. On the aspect of the model, promotion of ethical awareness in counselling. The nurses should be encouraged frequently on the benefits of upholding the five principles of counselling. Healthcare institutions should ensure counsellors are adequately trained on the ways to improve ethical practices in the facility. The administration and leaders should liaise with the nursing practitioners and identify the acceptable ethical practices in the facility. i created the model to breed significant and positive patient outcome.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ethical practices require a practical, ethical framework to promote patient outcome and experience. In unethical practices, an individual should follow the organization’s protocols in reporting and handling the issue. Nurses and counsellors could adopt the ethical severity model to reinforce ethical standards in the facility.
Reference
Choi, M. Y., So, H. S., & Ko, E. (2019). Influences of occupational stress, ethical dilemma, and burnout on turnover intention in hospital nurses. Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing, 26(1), 42-51.
Hammond, N., & Palmer, N. (2021). Between therapeutics and therapy: the continuum of therapeutic practice and the role of ethical blind spots in decision-making. Educational Psychology in Practice, 1-17.
McLennan, V., Ryan, K., & Randall, C. (2018). Ethical dilemmas experienced by Australian rehabilitation counsellors. Online Journal of Health Ethics, 14(1), 7.
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QUESTION:
Week 4 Instructor Guidance
Hello class and welcome to Week 4! As a quick recap of Week 3, we discussed the topics of client rights, informed consent, confidentiality, privileged communication, public communication, and related professional responsibilities. However, what happens when you know someone has violated these? What’s your recourse? That’s our topic for this week – whistleblowing. But first…
Boundaries
Ah…multiple relationships and boundary issues in counseling and other professional fields! This is the sort of discussion that has two very distinct camps:
On one side of the field, the Ethics boards of various professional organizations, most of whom are primarily academics who, if they do have any clinical practice, do so most often in a limited capacity in a highly urban area. We’ll call them the Board.
On the other side, the vast population of practitioners, who live in small towns, military bases, and within the loose boundaries of ethnic communities that are skeptical of outsiders and prefer to deal with one of their own. We’ll call this side the Action
The Board sees no reason to ever work with someone with whom you might have an existing relationship. I have a colleague, in fact, who will change what coffee shop she stops at if a client works there part-time. The Board looks at situations such as military bases – where a mental health officer may do counseling with someone on Friday and then work side by side with them at a public on-base event on Saturday – with regret.
The Action doesn’t understand the Board’s inability to see that most people don’t live in a big city where there are many therapists to go around – that in some towns, there is one physician, one therapist, one dentist – and you either travel a long way or see the professional in town. Thus, most people who seek counseling see the therapist in town – and see the therapist at the store, at worship services, at the library, at the town July 4th parade, etc., where everyone behaves naturally and the therapist occasionally has to ask people to NOT give him/her updates on their “homework” in public.
As you review the APA Code of Ethics and any other ethics code more relevant to your eventual field of practice, do you see the Code as more friendly to the Board side? The Action side? When you consider where you live/plan to live/plan to practice, how do you see the apparent preference for one side over the other working for you? What inherent challenges are created by the preference of the code authors?
Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing is when a person exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public (Vandekerckhove, 2006). And it happens way more often than you might think! Whistleblowing often has this connotation that it can only happen when an employee reports to the press about illicit or illegal activities. But in fact, the most common version of whistleblowing is reporting a fellow employee or manager for misconduct.
The term “whistleblowing” has been around since the late 1800’s (with its first use in print credited to an 1883 story published in a small-town paper in Wisconsin). By the 1970’s, it was seen as a negative word, likening it to “informer” or “snitch” which – given this was right around the time of Nixon and Watergate – makes sense. But since then, and with the help of some activists, whistleblowing today is seen as a civic and social responsibility, a duty to our ethical codes and our field. If we want to do the right thing, we need to be able to call out those who violate policies, regulations and the law.
Whistleblowing can be internal (most common) or external whistleblowing; and the information of alleged wrongdoing can be classified in many ways: violation of company policy/rules, law, regulation, or threat to public interest/national security, as well as fraud, and corruption (Vandekerckhove, 2006).
And because many of these violations can result in serious harm to persons or general safety, over time states needed to create whistleblower protection laws to help employees against retaliation. Finally, a national protection law was created which also covered Federal employees, those employed across states and other scenarios that can’t be protected under one state ruling. At the Federal level, this is known as The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, 5 U.S.C. 2302(b)(8)-(9), Pub.L.101-12 (and you can find a copy of it using the link at the bottom of this week’s guidance). But I have to say that despite the laws of protection, retaliation for whistleblowing is still very real. About 22% of whistle-blowers report some form of retaliation – that’s almost one in every four, not great odds despite the laws (Pope, 2012).
But despite retaliation, it is undeniable that whistle-blowers are an incredibly crucial piece of working world. Consider some of the most famous whistleblowing cases:
- Jeffrey Wigand (1996) – Exposed big tobacco by going on the news show 60 Minutes and stating that the tobacco company (Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.) had intentionally manipulated the level of nicotine in cigarette smoke to make it more addictive.
- Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper (2001) – Exposed fraudulent accounting practices at Enron and WorldCom, respectively. In short, by the use of accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting, these companies were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects– thus inflating the share price and over-valuing the company.
- And of course, you have to be thinking about government whistleblowers too:
- Mark Felt (aka Deep Throat), the whistleblower in Watergate
- Frank Serpico, the whistleblower on the NYPD
- Edward Snowden, the whistleblower on the NSA
- Coleen Rowley, the whistleblower on the FBI (pre-9/11 reports)
Our history is filled with whistleblowers. In fact, the reason we have informed consent today is because of a whistleblower. But I’ll let Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope tell you that story – check out this TEDTalk:
How Whistleblowers Shape History
Ethical Dilemmas
In a 1,050- to 1,400-word (or 3- to 4-page) paper, explain what you would do if you found an unethical practice in your workplace. Would it depend on the severity of the unethical practice? (Counseling center)
Provide a couple examples of potential unethical practices in your organization that could be considered very minor that people have come to “accept” as opposed to reporting.
Justify why you think that people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted. Create a continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations and discuss your model. How did you arrive at the model you created?
Explains What the Student Would do Regarding an Unethical Practice in the Workplace, Including if the Actions Would Depend on the Severity of the Unethical Practice
Total: 1.80
Distinguished – Thoroughly explains what the student would do regarding an unethical practice in the workplace, including if the actions would depend on the severity of the unethical practice.
Proficient – Explains in detail what the student would do regarding an unethical practice in the workplace, including if the actions would depend on the severity of the unethical practice.
Basic – Explains what the student would do regarding an unethical practice in the workplace, including if the actions would depend on the severity of the unethical practice.
Below Expectations – Explains briefly what the student would do regarding an unethical practice in the workplace, and may include if the actions would depend on the severity of the unethical practice.
Non-Performance – Does not explain what the student would do regarding an unethical practice in the workplace.
Justifies Why People Tend to Accept Some Unethical Practices While Others are not Accepted; Includes Examples of Potential Unethical Practices that People have Come to “Accept”
Total: 1.80
Distinguished – Comprehensively justifies why people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted; includes examples of potential unethical practices that people have come to “accept.”
Proficient – Justifies in depth why people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted; includes examples of potential unethical practices that people have come to “accept.”
Basic – Justifies why people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted; includes examples of potential unethical practices that people have come to “accept.”
Below Expectations – Nominally justifies why people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted; includes examples of potential unethical practices that people have come to “accept.”
Non-Performance – Does not justify why people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted.
Creates a Continuum of Severity Model Regarding Ethical Practices in Organizations; Discusses the Model and How the Model was Created
Total: 1.80
Distinguished – Creates a comprehensive continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations; discusses the model and how the model was created.
Proficient – Creates a detailed continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations; discusses the model and how the model was created.
Basic – Creates a continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations; discusses the model and how the model was created.
Below Expectations – Nominally creates a continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations; discusses the model and how the model was created.
Non-Performance – Does not create a continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations.
Written Communication: Control of Syntax and Mechanics
Total: 0.90
Distinguished – Displays meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Written work contains no errors and is very easy to understand.
Proficient – Displays comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Written work contains only a few minor errors and is mostly easy to understand.
Basic – Displays basic comprehension of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Written work contains a few errors which may slightly distract the reader.
Below Expectations – Fails to display basic comprehension of syntax or mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Written work contains major errors which distract the reader.
Non-Performance – The assignment is either nonexistent or lacks the components described in the instructions.
Written Communication: APA Formatting
Total: 0.90
Distinguished – Accurately uses APA formatting consistently throughout the paper, title page, and reference page.
Proficient – Exhibits APA formatting throughout the paper. However, layout contains a few minor errors.
Basic – Exhibits limited knowledge of APA formatting throughout the paper. However, layout does not meet all APA requirements.
Below Expectations – Fails to exhibit basic knowledge of APA formatting. There are frequent errors, making the layout difficult to distinguish as APA.
Non-Performance – The assignment is either nonexistent or lacks the components described in the instructions.
Written Communication: Evidence and Sources
Total: 1.80
Distinguished – Demonstrates consistent use of reliable, appropriate sources and/or evidence to support ideas that are situated within the discipline and genre of the writing.
Proficient – Demonstrates mostly consistent use of reliable sources that are appropriate to the discipline and genre of the writing. Sources offer some support to the ideas in the writing.
Basic – Demonstrates somewhat inconsistent use of sources that are mostly reliable to the discipline and genre of the writing. Sources offer little support to the ideas in the writing.
Below Expectations – Inconsistently utilizes sources and/or evidence that may be unrelated and offer little support to the ideas in the writing.
Non-Performance – The assignment is either nonexistent or lacks the components described in the instructions.
