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Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health care?
BACKGROUND: Moral courage means courage to act according to individual’s own ethical values and principles despite the risk of negative consequences for them. Research about the moral courage of whistle-blowers in health care is scarce, although whistleblowing involves a significant risk for the whi...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE Publications
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9527363/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35727204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09697330221092341 |
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author | Wiisak, Johanna Suhonen, Riitta Leino-Kilpi, Helena |
author_facet | Wiisak, Johanna Suhonen, Riitta Leino-Kilpi, Helena |
author_sort | Wiisak, Johanna |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Moral courage means courage to act according to individual’s own ethical values and principles despite the risk of negative consequences for them. Research about the moral courage of whistle-blowers in health care is scarce, although whistleblowing involves a significant risk for the whistle-blower. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the moral courage of potential whistle-blowers and its association with their background variables in health care. RESEARCH DESIGN: Was a descriptive-correlational study using a questionnaire, containing Nurses Moral Courage Scale(©), a video vignette of the wrongdoing situation with an open question about the vignette, and several background variables. Data were analysed statistically and inductive content analysis was used for the narratives. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Nurses as healthcare professionals (including registered nurses, public health nurses, midwives, and nurse paramedics) were recruited from the membership register of the Nurses’ Association via email in 2019. A total of 454 nurses responded. The research context was simulated using a vignette. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Good scientific inquiry guidelines were followed. Permission to use the Nurses’ Moral Courage Scale(©) was obtained from the copyright holder. The ethical approval and permission to conduct the study were obtained from the participating university and the Nurses’ Association. FINDINGS: The mean value of potential whistle-blowers’ moral courage on a Visual Analogue Scale (0–10) was 8.55 and the mean score was 4.34 on a 5-point Likert scale. Potential whistle-blowers’ moral courage was associated with their socio-demographics, education, work, personality and social responsibility related background variables. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In health care, potential whistle-blowers seem to be quite morally courageous actors. The results offer opportunities for developing interventions, practices and education to support and encourage healthcare professionals in their whistleblowing. Research is needed for developing a theoretical construction to eventually increase whistleblowing and decrease and prevent wrongdoing. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9527363 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95273632022-10-04 Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health care? Wiisak, Johanna Suhonen, Riitta Leino-Kilpi, Helena Nurs Ethics Original Manuscripts BACKGROUND: Moral courage means courage to act according to individual’s own ethical values and principles despite the risk of negative consequences for them. Research about the moral courage of whistle-blowers in health care is scarce, although whistleblowing involves a significant risk for the whistle-blower. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the moral courage of potential whistle-blowers and its association with their background variables in health care. RESEARCH DESIGN: Was a descriptive-correlational study using a questionnaire, containing Nurses Moral Courage Scale(©), a video vignette of the wrongdoing situation with an open question about the vignette, and several background variables. Data were analysed statistically and inductive content analysis was used for the narratives. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Nurses as healthcare professionals (including registered nurses, public health nurses, midwives, and nurse paramedics) were recruited from the membership register of the Nurses’ Association via email in 2019. A total of 454 nurses responded. The research context was simulated using a vignette. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Good scientific inquiry guidelines were followed. Permission to use the Nurses’ Moral Courage Scale(©) was obtained from the copyright holder. The ethical approval and permission to conduct the study were obtained from the participating university and the Nurses’ Association. FINDINGS: The mean value of potential whistle-blowers’ moral courage on a Visual Analogue Scale (0–10) was 8.55 and the mean score was 4.34 on a 5-point Likert scale. Potential whistle-blowers’ moral courage was associated with their socio-demographics, education, work, personality and social responsibility related background variables. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In health care, potential whistle-blowers seem to be quite morally courageous actors. The results offer opportunities for developing interventions, practices and education to support and encourage healthcare professionals in their whistleblowing. Research is needed for developing a theoretical construction to eventually increase whistleblowing and decrease and prevent wrongdoing. SAGE Publications 2022-06-21 2022-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9527363/ /pubmed/35727204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09697330221092341 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
spellingShingle | Original Manuscripts Wiisak, Johanna Suhonen, Riitta Leino-Kilpi, Helena Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health care? |
title | Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health
care? |
title_full | Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health
care? |
title_fullStr | Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health
care? |
title_full_unstemmed | Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health
care? |
title_short | Whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health
care? |
title_sort | whistle-blowers – morally courageous actors in health
care? |
topic | Original Manuscripts |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9527363/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35727204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09697330221092341 |
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