An Ethical Community and a “Just Culture”, Essay Example

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, an ethical community is defined as an epistemic community in which members are trusted to define and resolve disputes and to encourage the growth of moral development. (Maclagan, 1998). “Just culture”, on the other hand, is used to implement organizational improvement by “presenting a set of design laws that influence our ability to create the societal outcomes we desire” (The Just Culture Community, n.d.). Both of these concepts are useful in implementing an ethical healthcare organization. It is essential that all healthcare professionals can be trusted to define and resolve disputes among themselves in order to benefit their patients. Furthermore, the work environment should encourage complete honesty and reward for reporting mistakes rather than attempting to cover them up for fear of being in trouble. Since the patient is first priority, the healthcare community as a whole needs to operate as a “just culture” so that everyone understands what is ethically and morally correct in unique situations. It is essential for the management team to incorporate these lessons into the training of new members so the whole team can be effective and productive.

According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, “healthcare executives must demonstrate the importance of ethics in their own actions and seek various ways to integrate ethical practices and reflection into the organization’s culture” (American College of Healthcare Executives, 2011). The first step in this process is to ensure that the ethical rules of the organization are well-defined at that there are resources available to help employees who need to reference this information. Second, there must be a systematic training program to educate employees about the ethical rules in the workplace. Third, supervisors should be made aware of all possible ethical breaches and be aware of what to do to correct the situation. A 2008 article discusses that there will always be new ethical concerns, but it is essential for the healthcare organization to be able to adapt to handle them (Sorrell, 2008).

References

American College of Healthcare Executives. (2011). Creating an Ethical Culture Within the Healthcare Organization. Retrieved from https://www.ache.org/policy/environ.cfm

Maclagan, P. (1998). Management & morality. Thousand Oaks, IL: Sage Press.

Sorrell, J. (2008). Ethics: Ethics in Healthcare Organizations: Struggling with New Questions. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/Columns/Ethics/EthicsandNewQuestions.html

The Just Culture Community. (n.d.). What is Just Culture? Retrieved from https://www.justculture.org/what-is-just-culture/#.UshryvRDuYI