Original Question- Describe an ethical dilemma that you experienced, or have witnessed in a change leader, when attempting to initiate change. How was the ethical dilemma resolved? What can a change leader use to guide decision making when faced with an ethical dilemma?
Student Discussion 1 Post Response – (Michael)Re:Topic 6 DQ 2
Ethical dilemmas are typically faced by change agent within any process of the organizational development. Wooten and White (1983) describes that ethical dilemmas creates a disadvantageous position in terms of scientific and professional progression during organizational change. Ethics provides the basis for judging the correctness of certain behaviors specially amidst a crucial situation. Managers and leaders of today are bombarded by several sensitive issues that makes their plan and decisions off set in term of ethical standards. These factors may include: public pressure, legal and government concern, media coverage, financial aspect and more (Burnes, 2009).Due to these factors the importance of ethical reference is more important now than ever before.
Ethical dilemma may arise as a result of two opposing forces. For instance, financial cutbacks vs patient safety. This two opposing field could have impacted one of the practices in our institution. Ethical dilemma that I have noted in my current place of work is the unavailability of a break or relief nurse. The current system that we use now is called buddy system where in two nurses should help each other specially if charge nurse or resource nurse is not available during lunch break. One nurse should cover a total of 8 patient while the other nurse takes break/ lunch. This have created a huge risk in terms of the ability of the nurse to cover the entire patient population safely. As a response to this situation, attempts have been tried by Union leaders for the upper management to take actions about the existing unsafe practice within the hospital. Currently now they are in the process of resolving the issue. As a patient advocate, I am hoping that they will provide prompt action on the matter at hand.
Your Response-
Student Discussion 2 Post Response (calvin) – Hello Class
Ethical dilemma is when you’re faced with making a decision between two courses of action that make you question where you truly stand on the moral spectrum (Sun, 2017). We do not have to look far to find some good examples because world leaders are facing these tough decisions daily. Kim Jong-un the North Korea leader was faced with a critical decision on whether to pursue the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and bluff the world or take a humanitarian approach to help his country. In his quest for change he chose the latter to help the greatest number of people across the Asian-Pacific. He was able resolve the ethical dilemma by breaking from reclusiveness from the outside world and talking to other world leaders about the right thing to do. Although Kim Jong-un is far from being viewed as a reputable leader his actions in handling this ethical dilemma will resonate with world leaders for a while. As a change leader you have to considered the impact of those who will be affected by the decision, not rush the decisions, talk to others about the situation, think about the consequences, and think about what you can do from being put in this situation again.
Sun, S., (2017). What are some examples of ethical dilemma? Quora. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-ethical-dilemmas
http://www.thepfs.org/membership/ethical-dilemmas/how-to-handle-an-ethical-dilemma
Your Response-
Student Discussion Post Response – (Pamela)
1 posts
Re:Topic 6 DQ 2
I am an operating room nurse and once worked in an organization that experienced a few patient safety incidents that unfortunately led to a patient safety event. In addition, we were not meeting the highest organizational level 30-minute turnover requirement by seven minutes. In the midst of all of this, executive leadership decided to push our hospital turnover time to 25 minutes in order to surpass the higher level’s requirement. The ethical dilemma in this situation is that the organization seemed to be more focused on numbers than patient safety. Many of the nursing staff were frustrated with the fact that patient safety should come first and not making the hospital look good on paper. Needless to say, the staff did not cooperate well with the change process and made every effort to focus on fixing the problems in regard to patient safety. Unfortunately, I was not able to see resolution to this situation because I moved before this happened.
In the medical field, most professions are guided by a code of ethics and professional values. Beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice (Flite & Harman, 2013). In this case, before the change leader decided to reduce turnover times, they should consider how this change ultimately affects the patient. A change leader should also look to the values of the organization which also puts patient safety first and no harm. Given the patient safety concerns at the time, it seems that the change priority should have been focused on patient safety. In addition, the change leader has the ability to affect their staff and is responsible for providing a safe working environment.
References:
Flite, C. A., & Harman, L. B. (2013). Code of ethics: Principles for ethical leadership. Perspectives in health information management. American Health Information Management Association, 10(Winter), 1d.
Your Response-
Discussion Question-
Describe common mistakes mentors or coaches make when working with a mentee. How could avoiding these mistakes improve the mentor-mentee relationship? How could avoiding these mistakes lead to more significant progress from the mentee achieving agreed-upon goals?