Order Instructions
Ethical Position Versus Standards Violation
Collaboration Café
Two nurses, Vicki, RN, and Cindy, RN, say they were just trying to protect patients when they anonymously reported their concerns last November to the Department of Health and to the Joint commission. The RNs believed that the 140-bed hospital that they work for was not living up to ethical practice standards. The report given by the RN’s indicated Ms. Anderson, one of three quality review coordinators working for the quality department in the hospital, improperly encouraged clinical mangers to change patient safety data at the Sunny Valley Medical Center.
By encouraging the data changes to misrepresent what was truly happening, Ms. Anderson actions affected an important decision regarding a patient safety issue. Moreover, the county attorney’s office indicted Ms. Anderson on “misuse of official information,” a third-degree felony that carries potential penalties of 2-10 years’ in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.
Vicki and Cindy, both long-time nurses at the facility, were fired from their positions and were subsequently arrested last December, just five days past the 60-day window that could have been part of the defense to prove retaliation. The two nurses are free on bond of $5,000 each.
The Department of Health attorney sent a letter to the hospital attorneys stating that it is improper to criminally prosecute people for raising complaints with the board; that the complaints were confidential and not subject to subpoena; that the Department of Health is exempt from federal HIPAA law; and that, on the contrary, the board depends on reporting from healthcare professionals to carry out its duty of protecting the public from improper practitioners.
Please discuss ethical considerations in Vicki’s and Cindy’s behavior. Justify your answer.
Describe the various ethical, legal, and interpersonal conflicts that exist in this case.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Your instructor will be monitoring the Collaboration Café but not participating as this is your opportunity to give and receive feedback from your peers. The Collaboration Café is graded this week (50 points). There are no scholarly references required in this discussion format. Please see the guidelines and grading rubric.
The initial posting must meet the following expectations:
• Address the TD question in a thorough, substantive manner.
o Demonstrate application of scholarly resources.
Provide relevant evidence of two scholarly resources in the initial post, clearly stating how the evidence informed or changed professional or academic decisions.
One scholarly resource must be from a nursing peer-reviewed journal.
o Demonstrate application of course knowledge.
Demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and/or apply principles and concepts learned in the course lesson and outside readings and relate them to real-life, professional situations.
Compare concepts and principles from the weekly lesson with personal experience as it applies to the practice setting.
• Include correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, and sentence and paragraph structure.
• Include a minimum of two scholarly sources, current within five years, to support information presented.
o Scholarly sources required for the TD must be sources that are separate from course-related sources and/or reading assignments.
o If course-related sources or readings are used as a source in the TD, they must be in addition to the required scholarly sources for the discussion and must be cited following the current APA guidelines.
o If used as a source in the assignment, course-related readings must meet the criteria for scholarly work: current within five years.
o Sources older than five years may not be used without the permission of the course professor.
o Correct APA format for citing and referencing sources is applied.