Non-whistle blowing support systems

[vianne]

Dear Nurses, I invite all registered nurses to participate in a research project that I aim to complete as part of a postgraduate dissertation. I would like to hear how other nursing colleagues have resolved this type of dilemma using which support network(s) and why. I look forward to the sharing of your experiences. The subject matter does not lend itself to a survey, so please forgive the length of the post and read it completely before you reply.

Description of the project:

I am exploring which support networks nurses use when resolving issues of concern - i.e. who (or what) would you go to and why? I am especially interested in finding out what professional support nurses perceive themselves to have to be able to resolve an issue, without whistle blowing.

I have used definitions according to Ahern and McDonalds article of 2002 (p.305) of a whistle blower ("a nurse who identifies a incompetent, unethical or illegal situation in the workplace and reports it to someone who may have the power to stop the wrong") and a non-whistle blower (a nurse who identifies exactly the same "but does not openly report it"). They concluded that non-whistle blowers may use other methods (my italics) to handle situations. I feel this is worthy of further exploration in order to improve communication and so standards of care.

I look forward to answering questions in the thread and include a description of my own experience: We are a relatively new department and so raising a concern in this environment was also a new process for me. I was able to raise the concern, I was able to instigate a risk assessment and put safeguarding measures in place. Then the original concern occurred again, the person to whom I reported the issue was the same person who would have the power to stop the wrongdoing and was also the person responsible for the wrongdoing on the first and second occasion, having ignored the safeguarding arrangements.

I felt that I was presented with a dilemma - where next ? - on the one hand I had fulfilled my duty by reporting it to the person who had the power to stop the wrong. On the other hand however, I was justified in being concerned, as I have a moral responsibility to patients, real and potential, and knew that this practice was to continue unchanged.

There were differences to take into account: I am regulated professionally , the other person is not. That is not to say that the other person cares less, rather that our moral priorities are weighted2 differently - mine moved towards significant risk as I could foresee potential harm to the patient, the other person moved towards non-significant risk.

My example was only resolved by circumstances changing externally, otherwise may have continued and with it the dilemma. I am interested then in finding out how other nurses have resolved similar dilemmas and what support networks you have used to be able to do so and why.

Data collection will continue until the end of the year.

Benefits and Risks of this study

The proposed benefit of the study is being part of improving professional support for nurses who aim to resolve concerns in their workplace. No risks to participants are expected.

Confidentiality

Your anonymity and confidentiality will be ensured through your site username when registered according to site conditions. The descriptions of your experiences will be seen by anyone who reads the post so please ensure that identifiers are not used in your descriptions. Reported data will contain a collection of the data into themes, individual quotes may be used and attributed to the username.

Voluntary participation and withdrawal

Participation in this research study is entirely voluntary. If you do not want your description to be seen by the public do not post it. Should you decide that you do not want your data used in the study your data collected up to that point will be destroyed, however, it will remain on the thread on the site. Participants will be anonymous by use of their username throughout.

Questions, Rights and Complaints

Participants should not hesitate to contact the researcher by responding back to this post or by contacting my MSc supervisor: [email protected].

Consent statement -

Due to the internet-based distribution of the study, consent will be implied by participation in this post.

Thanks so much for your anticipated participation, time and effort, I really appreciate it.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

The due date on this research has been extended to the end of the year.

Please help this member out by considering to participate in her research.

[vianne]

Hi Allnurses, the closing date for data collection has come and gone and even though I extended it there were no takers or comments to my post. If anyone has the inclination, I would love to know why it didn't receive any comments - e.g. too long ? not in your sphere of experience? there aren't any non-whistle blowing support systems ? - its always interesting to find out why something hasn't worked as well as why it has !

thanks for the space anyway (and all the help received by the admin team, it was invaluable and stopped me stressing out) I hope to still log on and enjoy joining in on comments about other topics,

Vianne