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Leadership Ethics is central to leadership as leaders help to establish and reinforce organizational values (Thompson, Attach, and Morel, 2010). Leaders play a major role in establishing and regulating the ethical ambient of any organization. An ethics based approach to leadership described and identified some leadership styles in organizations. Leaders with unethical styles use their positions for their benefits or for a special group at the expense of others.
These leaders use positions as a platform for ego-boosting rather than accomplishing good and also seek retribution against those with opposing and conflicting views (Thompson, Attach, and Morel, 2010). Ethically neutral leaders do not take time to reflect on any subtle ethical issues; mostly due to lack of awareness, discernment or moral courage. Ethical leaders encourage feedback and dialogues. They bring attention to critical issues, promote honest and candid discussions, manage competing perspectives and facilitate the decision making process in a timely manner.
These leaders make sacrifices for the common good and show uncommon courage (Thompson, Attach, and Morel, 2010). These leaders are called servant-leaders as they are highly concerned about empathy, empowerment, healing, openness, esteeming and equality. Clinical Example We all need to be aware of the confidential nature of information obtained in daily practice. If information is not pertinent to a case, the nurse should question whether it is prudent to record it in the patient’s chart. In the practice setting, discussion of the patient with other members of the health care team is often necessary.
These discussions should, however, occur in a private area where it is unlikely that the conversation will be overheard. Another threat to keeping information confidential is the widespread use of computers and the easy access people have to them. This may increase the potential for misuse of information, which may have negative social consequences. An example of confidentiality being broke would be when a nurse is on her computer charting on a specific patient and walks away to answer the phone or a call light.
The nurse leaves the computer screen up with everything open to what she was just charting. This was seen by a guest in the hospital, and some of a patient’s medical records were revealed. As nurse leader in a situation where there is a breech in confidentiality, the nurse leader must take the offense seriously and address the issue and try to come up with a solution to prevent it from happening again. The nurse leader in this situation needs to address the issue in an authoritative manner.
The nurse leader needs to refine the problem, gather information, determine outcomes, develop solutions, consider consequences, make decisions, implement, and evaluate (Shuffles, and Moyer, 2010). Since most all patient information has moved to electronic medical records (EMMER) it makes patient privacy and confidentiality more at risk (Kerr, 2009). As the nurse leader an assessment must be done as to why this happened. Was it the nurse’s fault? Was t malfunctioning of the computer? Once that is determined the nurse manager then must decide on proper discipline for the nurse.
A HIPPO violation can cause a nurse to be fired. If the offense is minor like the one in this case then maybe a warming or HIPPO class could be taken by the nurse. Conclusion As a nurse leader being thrown into different kinds of ethical situations, the nurse must find the leadership style that fits the specific situation. The nurse leader must provide feedback to the other staff members about the ethical situation and follow the organizations ethical principles too. A good nurse deader will make decisions for the facility that promotes honest and open communication amongst everyone at the facility.