Whistle Blowing in Nursing - Research Paper Example

An assistant to a doctor; a nurse manages and observes the patient’s progress through illness, maintains an up to date health record thus providing constant care and medical attention to a patient at all times. Furthermore, a nurse might also act as a health advisor for the patients’ future well being. The American Nursing Association (ANA) states, “nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (What is Nursing 2012). Despite the level of input required, the reward for this profession mostly shows up as a bully. Majority of the nurses face social demons at work such as discrimination, over exploitation and verbal or even in some cases, physical abuse. Through a survey conducted of 612 nurses, 67.5% have, at some point or the other suffered inappropriate behavior from their managers. American Nursing Association has stated that 56.9% have either been threatened or been abused verbally at work. (Malcolm 2006; Spence, Leiter, Day, & Gilin 2009; ANA 2001). Whistle blowing is a terminology used when an employee of an organization who objects over illegal or unethical practices that takes place within the business. Depending upon the nature of the management style, whistle blowing can have its advantages but, in some cases quite severe repercussions. Many within a firm might consider whistle blowing no less than an act of treachery while for some companies or organizations, whistle blowing is just another form of collaborative and collective ideas to cut costs and improve efficiency from all areas of the firm. Encouraging employees from all levels of hierarchy to step up and contribute towards the betterment of the institution, collectively. However, fact is, such an attitude is rare to be found. News reports and surveys represent clearly that healthcare institutions are not in favor of such an activity and view whistle blowing as cynical criticism that diminishes its public image. Nurse practitioners have suffered the most, socially and economically because of whistle blowing. Research shows Ninety-five respondents were included in the study; 70 were self-identified as whistleblowers and 25 were self-identified as non whistle blowers. Results indicated that there were severe professional reprisals if the nurse reported misconduct, but there were few professional consequences if the nurse remained silent. Official reprisals included demotion (4%), reprimand (11%), and referral to a psychiatrist (9%). Whistleblowers also reported that they received professional reprisals in the form of threats (16%), rejection by peers (14%), pressure to resign (7%), and being treated as a traitor (14%). Ten per cent reported that they felt their career had been halted (McDonald & Ahern 2000). It is not easy to be a whistle blower, standing up for the right thing can and will have undesired consequences. Nurses in our society are undervalued. Their position in the society and their profession is quite usually taken for granted. Rarely does a person acknowledge their efforts towards healthcare and their status in the industry is often looked down upon. It is for this reason that nurses find it immensely difficult to stand up for what is right and refuse what harms the society and the welfare or to just simply take on a choice or for their individual rights. Such undermining makes them an easy target for bullies of the industry. Time has shown how the status quo in the healthcare industry has damaged the ...Show more