Establishing an Ethical Culture in My Healthcare Organization:
The Health Unit will have space types of facilities that outpatient ambulatory health services will be provided. This health care facility will start simple and develop into provisions for in-patient services, invasive surgery, medical diagnostic equipment such as medical gas systems and exam lights, radiological diagnostic services such as radiation shielding and special structural elements, medical laboratory spaces and darkroom revolving door systems (Jennings, 2011).
The code of ethics in this case requires the physician to be dedicated in providing competent medical care, with respect and compassion for human rights and dignity. Second, the physician needs to uphold the professionalism standards, be transparent in all work interactions, and strive towards reporting physicians of deficient character or competence (Ciulla, 2004). The physicians should respect the law and recognize responsibilities to seek alterations in those requirements that are contrary to the individual interests of a patient. Physicians shall also respect all the rights of colleagues, patients, as well as other health professionals, and safeguard patient confidentiality within the constraints of the law. Physician shall also support the unlimited access to health care to all people. According to the Christian worldview, autonomy, or self-determination is a core value of medical practice that has very much evolved over the years. The general nature of the medical associations with respect to ethical directives cannot deal with each situation that physicians face in the course of their medical practice.
In the pluralistic global business world, the effect of unethical conduct takes many dimensions in relation to economic, political, social and environmental impacts. In the leadership sphere, unethical working practices impede democracy as well as the rule of law. Subsequently, in democratic systems, health care institutions and offices stand to lose legitimate status as they misuse their position for private interest (Jennings, 2011). Unethical health care conduct could also result into substantially negative outcomes such as organizational leadership instabilities, reducing interest of employee participation and encoring cynicism, reducing departmental competition, reducing the decision making transparency, distorting strategy development as well as sustaining a culture of political activity on the basis of clienteles, patronage, and money.
The implementation of the ethical culture will follow six steps to achieve ultimate success. The first step is establishing enforceable codes of conduct at the work place. Here, the processes need to be conducted led by those who are at the management level of the health care facility and include employee input. This step is very important as it ensures that there is sufficiency in policy development and compounded ownership (Ciulla, 2004). The second step is to ensure that there exists an initial and ongoing training process for all the employees. This kind of training will begin once each person is incorporated. Similarly, it is important to maintain sustainable levels of performance and policy implementation throughout the life spans of each employee. Regular communications are the next step that is soundly important to be maintained at all times. The ethical codes need to be a live and ongoing conversation. This is for the purposes of creating a forum through which all employees can air their views relating to all aspects of the economic venture.
The next step is to ensure anonymity of the reporting hotline. This is principally aimed at allowing companies to provide their employees with safe, confidential and anonymous ways to report illegal, unethical or inappropriate activities. Basically, this is one of the most effective ways of spotting deviations from the norms as soon as they arise. The next consideration is the enforcement and actions of the company in implementing the policies. In this case, the health care facility has to be willing to go to whatever extents to enforce the stipulated codes of conduct (Jennings, 2011). Finally, it is prudent to reward employees who live to the culture. The health care facility should ensure that employees are well aware that a culture of ethical sustainability is very important to the overall operations of the organization. Similarly, it should allow the recognition and rewarding systems of the employees that facilitate the establishment of such a culture.
When people share convictions, cooperation is made far much easier and ensures that conflicts are limited. The health care facilities management therefore needs to look into ethical principles which are universally shared such as the global ethics. The values and standards are integral parts of any ethical culture. Due to this consideration, an ethical culture forms the bedrock that supports each development (Ciulla, 2004). Even though cultures can obstruct progress, they can nevertheless be tools for emancipation. Ethical cultures are also goals in themselves which it give meaning to the health care centre’s existence. This also holds true with respect to equal rights, freedom of speech, responsibility for future generations, and democracy as they not only stimulate progress but also the development objectives thereof. In helping physicians articulate whether and under which conditions participation in certain activities and practices, medical associations are required to use various analytic methods other than entirely relying on the existing codes of ethics.
Relevantly, the most fundamental considerations of medical ethics include autonomy, competence and compassion, as well as the physicians’ skills and experience. They should cut across all aspects of healthcare and medicine by providing a sound basis for the analysis of ethical issues in medical situation. This will enable them arrive at workable solutions which are at the best interest of the patients as well as citizens and in the general public health service provision (Jennings, 2011). It is for this reason that employee training needs to differently and independently address the ethical requirements for the management against non-management employees. Training on ethics ensures more useful when it comes to helping the junior level employees feel well prepared in handling certain situations which invite misconduct. This does not out rightly suggest that the elimination of all ethics training and capacitating for both top and middle level management employees. Actually, it does suggest the development of a training curriculum which takes all the differences into account.
In developing compliance and ethics strategies as well as training programs for the clients, the health care facility needs to avail all the necessary information and resources in good time. It is often the case that the organizations which stand the best chances of establishing real changes in moving towards an integral ethical culture are those that have higher levels of self-knowledge with respect to own cultural vulnerabilities and strengths (Ciulla, 2004). However, this issue is often a relatively open question as to the type of intervention that is most effective to generate the desired changes. Training on ethics is primarily directed towards telling each employee their expectations of them as they are usually far less impactful as compared to training. This is because it addresses various and specific health care employee behaviors which influence the new ethics culture. The main challenge in this case lies on pinpointing the behaviors as well as taking the appropriate measures towards addressing them.
Reference:
Ciulla J., (2004) Ethics, The Heart Of Leadership. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group
Jennings M., (2011) Business Ethics: Case Studies and Selected Readings. New York: Cengage Learning
