Question

Legal & Ethical Issues

Jonathan Kirkpatrick recently was hired as a nursing manager in an acute care hospital for orthopedics, neurology, and two medical-surgical units for a for-profit corporation. Nurse Kirkpatrick is responsible for the quality, cost, and morale for the units that he manages. As part of his employment package, he is rewarded with a bonus based on the amount of money that he is able to save the hospital.

1. What is the key challenge Nurse Kirkpatrick faces in most aspects of this new position?
2. One of the first things Nurse Kirkpatrick is asked to do in his new position is to “cut the fat” out of staff numbers. The corporation that owns the hospital believes there are too many nurses on the payroll. Personally, although he does not say so up front, Nurse Kirkpatrick disagrees. He believes the nurses currently on staff are all needed for quality of care. As he looks for ways to cut these numbers, what concerns might he raise to make administrative staff aware of the risks? Identify both ethical concerns and potential legal concerns.

Answer 1

The new job profile for the nurse is a difficult one as it involves cutting the costs and saving money and depending on that his bonus will be dependent and he will be rewarded. This is a serious situation as he has to take difficult decision and make sure that the money is saved and it involves a lot of challenges which can hurt multiple departments multiple people along the way a just with monetary benefits in mind. This attitude of saving money and promising the new nurse employee the benefits of bonus will lead to decrease in quality of patient care and also promote unethical practices which can lead to two negative impacts on the organisation in terms of delivery in patient care.

In order to cut the fat or get rid of the employees which are non essential, it will impact the quality care given to the patient. Just terminating the nursing staff and the other staff for the sake of saving money will pose more difficult problem and will put additional stress on the remaining work force which will lead to decreased in the quality of care provided and the treatment of the patient will suffer in this process. Ethical concerns in this case is that keeping monetary benefits in mind the people are and ethically being asked to remove by the management to the newly appointed nurse employment is important for each and every working staff. The administration needs to be effectively explain the requirement of the staff in the functioning of the hospital and the division of the labour and duties which are critical in running this hospital and not to indulge in any unethical activities just to reduce the workforce and save some money as in the long run it can negatively affect the footfall in the hospital. The legal concern might be in the form of formation of a workers union by the nurses on the staff future being removed or a class action lawsuit which can be filed against the organisation for malpractice and unethical means to terminate the employment of the nurses from the payroll just in order to save the money. Of this kind of news were to come out in the media, it can negatively tarnish the image of the hospital and lead to serious application which can affect the overall revenue the repetition and the Goodwill of the hospital.