Ethical Conflict in Nursing Essay

The article provides a comprehensive report of an in Canada to examine the existence and nature of ethical conflict in the workplace, focusing mainly on the experiences of nurse managers as the study population. The researchers focused on 7 hospitals in the eastern part of the country. In their findings, the researchers report that ethical conflict at the workplace has four major themes, which were revealed and expounded. First, the study reports that voicelessness is a common theme that defines the problem (Gaudine & Beaton, 2002). Secondly, the theme of where to spend money has been revealed and discussed as a major aspect of by nurse managers. Thirdly, the researchers reveal that the conflict between individual rights and organizational needs is a major theme that defines the ethical conflict affecting nurse managers (Gaudine & Beaton, 2002). Finally, it was revealed that the presence of senior administrators or organizational leaders with the nurse managers, indicating that such practices are a major theme that defines ethical conflict at the workplace (Gaudine & Beaton, 2002).

Identifying two themes and explaining the supporting data
In this paper, the themes of voicelessness and the conflict between individual rights and organizational needs will be analyzed. In particular, the data that led to the realization that these two aspects are themes defining ethical conflict is important in explaining how the researchers make the conclusion as well as how an action plan can be developed and implemented to address the problem.

According to the study, voicelessness was identified in all the interviews conducted. The researchers suggest that the nurse managers are in constant conflict with the value of participation. To construct this theme, the researchers examined the responses of the nurse managers in terms of their experiences in dealing with the organization, the organizational culture, and the senior management. In this case, that the participants felt that they were hired because the organization wanted them to follow the norms or toe the party line without questioning the system, thus making them silent or voiceless. Secondly, the data shows that nurse managers are excluded in the decision-making process, even in cases where the are involved. In addition, it was found that the positions of nurse managers have been decreased deliberately, which means that the voice of nurses has been undermined, especially in the process of making decisions. The data obtained further indicated that nurses felt that their profession is not valued and not well understood. In addition, the data indicates that the organizations do not make efforts to understand the role and value of nursing. Consequently, these factors reveal that nurses are made silent or voiceless because they are not involved, their roles have been decreased and their profession is not well understood or valued.

The theme of the conflict between individual rights and organizational needs has been well defined using data obtained from the interview. In this case, the researchers identified two major elements that construct the theme. First, the qualitative data indicated that the policies used in the organizations tend to support the legal needs of the organization but pay little attention to the needs of the patients and nurses. Secondly, the data revealed that nurse managers are forced to make decisions that only serve the needs and interests of the organization but pay little or no attention to the needs of the nurses. In fact, the data also indicated that some of these decisions had negative impacts on the nurse managers and their nurses.