Whistle-Blowing in the Nursing Profession

Paper Summary:

The writer of this paper stresses that nurses have a moral and ethical obligation to disclose potentially serious medical mistakes to their patients. The patient has the right to know if an error has occurred and how that error could affect their medical care. While nurses are in fear of losing their jobs, they are obligated morally to put their personal job security aside and speak up with they see that there is a potential problem with a patient's healthcare. Morally, nurses should also speak out when they see a potential administrative problem. This paper contains relevant statistics regarding errors in medical care to patients.

From the Paper:

"Nurses are obviously afraid to tell when they are the cause of or witness a mistake. They fear for their jobs and they fear lawsuits. However, there is a moral obligation to tell. The Bible tells us that the "truth will set you free." Nurses will undoubtedly have some feelings of guilt if they don't tell the truth. It is possible to feel burdened with the knowledge that someone has been seriously injured or have even died due to a mistake that is the fault of the nurse in question or another. In addition to moral issues, it's important for nurses to reveal mistakes so that the medical industry and politicians know the conditions in which nurses work. They must fully get a picture of the dangers of having over-worked medical professionals and hospitals that are seriously short staffed."

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