Case Studies
- How can she make a difference in her sphere of influence?
- How can she stay encouraged in the whole thing?
- What might you do in situations where you know that you can’t make things right as fast as should be?
A CASE STUDY IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS: ETHICAL EVALUATION OF A JOB; WORKSHOP #2
Joanne Murray wanted a challenge when she graduated from nursing school, so she applied for a position as staff nurse in a large, urban medical center which had a good reputation for its quality nursing care. Several of her friends had been patients at this medical center and had highly recommended it to Joanne. A guided tour of the facilities convinced Joanne that this would be the ideal place to work.
After a week of orientation, Joanne was sent to the floor where she would work. Her idealism was quickly shattered. It was a medical unit for patients on welfare. Most of them required total care, yet the ratio of patients to staff was often ten to one most days. On evenings and nights the situation was worse. Other floors with private patients were well staffed. The head nurse was an alcoholic with a foul temper who pitted her staff against one another. The atmosphere was thick with hostility. The average length of stay for personnel was three months.
Joanne was committed to giving good nursing care, yet she found it impossible to provide even adequate care. She became depressed and discouraged and began to wonder if she wanted to stay in nursing at all. She volunteered to work permanent nights to avoid the problems of relating to the day shift, especially the head nurse. One night when things were fairly quiet, Joanne confided her frustrations to the night supervisor. The supervisor responded sympathetically, saying, "I know things are bad on three South, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Perhaps we could transfer you to another floor. You’ve served enough time here."
Joanne felt she could not accept the offer with a clear conscience. To go to another floor would not improve nursing care on three South. It would merely remove it from her experience. Joanne was deeply concerned about the patients who were receiving such poor care.
The following week, Joanne met the hospital administrator at a church supper. He asked how she liked working at the medical center. She was so caught-up in her feelings of frustration that she told him honestly and asked, "Why is the staffing on three South so much worse than on the private floors?"
"Oh, but it’s not!" he replied, "We have exactly the same number of nurses on each unit."
"Yes, but the other units have fewer patients, and most of those patients require much less physical care than ours do," Joanne responded.
The administrator hesitated, then said, "Well, we have to provide better care for our paying patients. They are our public relations force. If they don’t receive good care, we would be in trouble financially. Then we couldn’t provide care for anybody."
Joanne swallowed hard to hold back the tears of anger and frustration. She wondered how Christians could perpetuate such inequality and injustice. Yet she felt powerless. She went home and cried.
What Joanne did:
Sorry, we don’t know the end of this story. We get sense from the way it ends that Joanne lived with the frustration of knowing she couldn’t change the system to be more just.
Reprinted from Dilemma: A Nurse’s Guide for Making Ethical Decisions for InterVarsity Fresno’s Marketplace Study Group. Used by permission.
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