Abstract
Whistle-blowing has played an important role in improving patient care. It has brought many cases of malpractice and research misconduct to light and contributed to nipping them in the bud. Indeed, patients’ interests have been generally improved due to the activities of whistle-blowers in medicine. However, a number of healthcare personnel consider whistle-blowing negatively because it might sabotage their professional careers. As such, whistle-blowers are sometimes dealt with in appalling manners. This entry discusses the development of whistle-blowing, how culprits in healthcare can be exposed, and the judicial support for whistle-blowers. The role of academia in shaping the way difficult situations are handled and future strategies developed, to improve and protect whistle-blowers are also elaborated. The entry highlights the need to change policies into practice and assist healthcare personnel in coming forward to expose wrongdoers in the noble field of medicine and for the ultimate good of humanity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahern, K., & McDonald, S. (2002). The beliefs of nurses who were involved in a whistleblowing event. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 38, 303–309.
Bell, S. K., White, A. A., Yi, J. C., Yi-Frazier, J. P., & Gallagher, T. H. (2015). Transparency when things go wrong: Physician attitudes about reporting medical errors to patients, peers, and institutions. Journal of Patient Safety. doi:10.1097/PTS.0000000000000153.
Bolsin, S., Pal, R., Wilmshurst, P., & Pena, M. (2011). Whistleblowing and patient safety: The patient’s or the profession’s interests at stake? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 104, 278–282.
Chekara, C. K., & Kitzingera, J. (2007). Science, patriotism and discourses of nation and culture: Reflections on the South Korean stem cell breakthroughs and scandals. New Genetics and Society, 26(3), 289–307.
DesRoches, C. M., Rao, S. R., Fromson, J. A., Birnbaum, J. R., Iezzoni, L., Vogeli, C., & Campbell, E. G. (2010). Physicians’ perceptions, preparedness for reporting, and experiences related to impaired and incompetent colleagues. Journal of the American Medical Association, 304(2), 187–193.
Jackson, D., Hickman, L. D., Hutchinson, M., Andrew, S., Smith, J., Potgieter, I., Cleary, M., & Peters, K. (2014). Whistleblowing: An integrative literature review of data-based studies involving nurses. Contemporary Nurse, 48(2), 240–252.
King, G., & Hermodson, A. (2000). Peer reporting of co-worker wrong-doing: A qualitative analysis of observer attitudes in the decision to report versus not report unethical behavior. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 28(4), 309–329.
Klitzman, R. (2011). Views and experiences of IRBs concerning research integrity. Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics, 39(3), 513–528.
Leary, E., & Diers, D. (2013). The silence of the unblown whistle: The Nevada hepatitis C public health crisis. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 86, 79–87.
Macdougall, D. R. (2014). Whistleblowing and the bioethicist’s public obligations. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 23(4), 431–442.
Mansbach, A., Kushnir, T., Ziedenberg, H., & Bachner, Y. G. (2014, October). Reporting misconduct of a coworker to protect a patient: A comparison between experienced nurses and nursing students. The Scientific World Journal. Retrieved from http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/413926/
Maynard, K. J., Gelder, B. V., & Rotker, M. (1998, October). Whistleblower protection under the False Claims Act: An overview and survey of recent decisions for practitioners. Retrieved from http://www.wileyrein.com/publications.cfm?sp=articles&id=318
Miceli, M. P., Near, J. P., & Dworkin, T. M. (2008). Whistle blowing in organizations. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Outterson, K. (2012). Punishing health care fraud – Is the GSK settlement sufficient? New England Journal of Medicine, 367(12), 1082–1085.
Silverman, M., Lydecker, M., & Lee, P. R. (1990). The drug swindlers. International Journal of Health Services, 20(4), 561–572.
Uys, T., & Senekal, A. (2008). Morality of principle versus morality of loyalty: The case of whistle blowing. African Journal of Business Ethics, 3(1), 38–44.
Vaughn, R. G. (2014). The successes and failures of whistleblower laws. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
White, C. (2004). Doctors mistrust systems for reporting medical mistakes. British Medical Journal, 329(7456), 12.
Further Readings
Bolsin, S., Faunce, T., & Oakley, J. (2005). Practical virtue ethics: Healthcare whistleblowing and portable digital technology. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31(10), 612–618.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2005, February). Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/bioethics/bioethics-and-human-rights/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ejaz, K., Jawad, F. (2016). Whistle-Blowing. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_443
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_443
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09482-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09483-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities