Question: How have you handled unethical behaviour in your leadership context? If the behaviour was addressed, how was the conversation received? (Norm, 2018)

Norm, great question! I work in healthcare, specifically with a very vulnerable population of patients so ethical decision making is always front and center. As a nurse leader, I have reviewed patient cases where unethical behavior has been discovered, however, the intent is usually never malicious. It is often done unsuspectingly, with no thought to the potential consequences. To elaborate, a nurse withholds a specific kind of medication from a patient because she had a strong, deep-seated belief that this type of medication is not what this patient needs. The decision to not administer the medication created an ethical dilemma because as a result, the patient ended up inadvertently suffering more, as a symptom wasn’t managed as well as it could have been.

Once identified, the behaviour of this nurse was brought forward by my manager and myself in a very respectful, yet serious manner. Unfortunately, the conversation happened after the patient had passed so facts were reviewed in the form of a case review. The conversation was constructive, as the nurse felt heard in her rationale for acting as she did. It was also frank as to why the decision was unethical and not appropriate in this patient’s situation. The nurse in this example is very senior and experienced in the nursing felid of palliative care, so receiving this feedback about her practice was difficult for her to take. What was helpful, however, was that I had done a through case review of the patient prior to having the discussion and by doing this, the nurse could see the impact of her decision on the patient’s behavior as charting by other nurses revealed the mismanaged symptom.

Daneen

Reference

Beange, N. (2018). Unit 7 – Activity 1. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/norm/2018/11/09/unit-7-activity-1/