Ethical Decision Making

When making ethical decisions as a leader, my approach often involves applying the "Publicity Test," (Strom-Gottfried,2007) which in learned about in a philosophy course. This test involves asking questions like "Is my decision justifiable?" and "How would it be viewed by other professionals?"

This approach encourages me to seek advice from team members and other professionals to help reduce my bias and consider all factors contributing to an issue. To balance conflicting values and different options while attempting to minimize risks. I make sure to consider how my decisions affect individuals involved in the problem. Viewing ethical problems as if my decisions could be made public and investigated ensures that I thoughtfully analyze all parts of an issue and make well-informed, justified decisions.

Ethical Dilemma: I work in an integrated health clinic, that provides care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. One of our dental hygienists would avoid seeing uninsured children, only prioritizing those with insurance. She often complained about not being reimbursed for her services, and this behavior concerned the medical assistants and case managers, but no supervisors were informed due to fear.

This frustrated me because her actions contradicted our clinic's mission to provide quality care regardless of payment. I first spoke with her about it to get her input, she was frustrated and claimed she couldn't see every child. I followed by gathering information from other dental hygienists and team members. I learned that most dental hygienists were able to see most uninsured patients.

After learning this, I hesitated to act. Instead, I took time to consider those affected which were the children, I realized her actions opposed our mission and my value of equality. This led me to seek input from a Behavioral Health therapist I trust, who advised me to inform the supervisors. She provided me with solutions and talked me through my concerns.

After various conversations and gathering information, I notified my manager about my concerns. My manager told me she appreciated my honesty and informed me they were already aware and monitoring the situation. More than a year later, the hygienist was let go, as there were discrimination concerns. Although management was already aware, it was important for me to raise the issue as it was ethically wrong.