Whistleblowing Need not Occur if Internal Voices Are Heard: From Deaf Effect to Hearer Courage; Comment on “Cultures of Silence and Cultures of Voice: The Role of Whistleblowing in Healthcare Organisations”

Document Type: Commentary

Authors

Discipline of Nursing, School of Health Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Abstract

Whistleblowing by health professionals is an infrequent and extraordinary event and need not occur if internal voices are heard. Mannion and Davies’ editorial on “Cultures of Silence and Cultures of Voice: The Role of Whistleblowing in Healthcare Organisations” asks the question whether whistleblowing ameliorates or exacerbates the ‘deaf effect’ prevalent in healthcare organisations. This commentary argues that the focus should remain on internal processes and hearer courage.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Mannion R, Davies HT. Cultures of silence and cultures of voice: the role of whistleblowing in healthcare organisations. Int  J Health Policy Manag. 2015;4(8):503-505. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2015.120
  2. Cuellar MJ, Keil M, Johnson RD. The deaf effect response to bad news reporting in information systems projects. e-Service Journal. 2006;5(1):75-97.
  3. Jones A, Kelly D. Whistle-blowing and workplace culture in older peoples' care: qualitative insights from the healthcare and social care workforce. Sociol Health Illn. 2014;36(7):986-1002. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12137
  4. Cleary SR. Nurse whistleblowers in Australian hospitals: a critical case study. Deakin Burwood Melbourne School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, Deakin University; 2014.
  5. Hunt G. Introduction: Whistleblowing and the breakdown of accountability. In: Hunt G, ed. Whistleblowing in the Health Service: Accountability, Law & Professional Practice. London: Edward Arnold; 1995.
  6. Wortley R, Cassematis P, Donkin M. Who blows the whistle, who doesn’t and why? In: Brown AJ, ed. Whistleblowing in the Australian Public Sector. Enhancing the theory and practice of internal witness management in public sector organisations. Canberra ACT: Australian National University E press; 2008:53-82.
  7. Miceli M, Near J, Dworkin T. Whistle-blowing in Organizations. New York: Routledge/Psychpress; 2008.
  8. Lewis D, Brown AJ, Moberly R. Whistleblowing, its importance and the state of the research. In: Brown AJ, Lewis D, Moberly R, Vandekerckhove W, eds. International Handbook on Whistelblowing Research Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar; 2014:1-34.
  9. Miceli MP, Near JP. The relationships among beliefs, organizational position, and whistle-blowing status: a discriminant analysis. Acad Manag J. 1984;27(4):687-705.
  10. Lachman V. Whistleblowers: Troublemakers or virtuous nurses? Dermatol Nurs. 2008;20(5):390-393.
  11. Firtko A, Jackson D. Do the ends justify the means? Nursing and the dilemma of whistleblowing. Aust J Adv Nurs. 2005;23(1):51-56.
  12. Jubb PB. Whistleblowing: A restrictive definition and interpretation. J Bus Ethics. 1999;21(1):77.
  13. Bok S. Blowing the Whistle. In: Fleishman JL, Liebman L, Moore MH, eds. Public Duties: The Moral Obligations of Government Officials. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1981:204-220.
  14. Trossman S. Kentucky nurse blows the whistle - and wins. Am Nurse. 2005;37(5):13.
  15. Tariman JD. When should you blow the whistle for ethical reasons? ONS Connect. 2007;22(2):22.
  16. Starr L. Two nurses face criminal charges for whistleblowing. Australian Nursing Journal. 2010;17(10):20.
  17. Iliffe J. Whistleblowing: A difficult decision. Australian Nursing Journal. 2002;9(7):1.
  18. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Draft Guidelines for Adverse Event Reporting and Learning Systems: from Information to Action. Geneva: WHO, World Alliance for Patient Safety; 2005.
  19. Alford CF. Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 2001.
  20. Wright K. Towards a cultural sociology of whistleblowing In: Majoribanks T, Barraket J, Chang JS, et al, eds. Reimagining Sociology. The annual conference of The Australian Sociological Association. The University of Melbourne, Victoria: The Australian Sociological Association; 2008.
  21. Oakley J, White L. Whistleblowing, virtue, and accountability in an age of precarious employment. Just Policy: A Journal of Australian Social Policy. 2005(37):63-70.
  22. Bather A, Kelly M. Whistleblowing: The advantages of self-regulation. Department of Accounting Working Paper Series 2005;82. http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/1683. Accessed  September 8, 2010.
  23. Sawyer KR, Johnson J, Holub M. The Necessary Illegitimacy of the Whistleblower. Bus Prof Ethics J. 2010;29(1):85-107.
  24. Firth-Cozens J, Firth RA, Booth S. Attitudes to and experiences of reporting poor care. Clinical Governance. 2003;8(4):331-336.
  25. Public Concern at Work. Public Concern at Work/Nursing Standard Whistleblowing Survey 2008. London: Public Concern at Work; 2008.
  26. McDonald S, Ahern K. The professional consequences of whistleblowing by nurses. J Prof Nurs. 2000;16(6):313-321.
  27. Attree M. Factors influencing nurses’ decisions to raise concerns about care quality. J Nurs Manag. 2007;15(4):392-402. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2007.00679.x
  28. Orbe MP, King G. Negotiating the tension between policy and reality: exploring nurses' communication about. Health Commun. 2000;12(1):41-61.
  29. Jackson D, Peters K, Andrew S, et al. Trial and retribution: a qualitative study of whistleblowing and workplace relationships in nursing. Contemp Nurs. 2010;36(1-2):34-44. doi:10.5172/conu.2010.36.1-2.034
  30. Jackson D, Peters K, Andrew S, et al. Understanding whistleblowing: qualitative insights from nurse whistleblowers. J Adv Nurs. 2010;66(10):2194-2201. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05365.x
  31. Jackson D, Hickman LD, Hutchinson M, et al. Whistleblowing: an integrative literature review of data-based studies involving nurses. Contemp Nurse. 2014;48(2):240-252. doi:10.5172/conu.2014.48.2.240
  32. Ahern K, McDonald S. The beliefs of nurses who were involved in a whistleblowing event. J Adv Nurs. 2002;38(3):303-309.
  33. Black LM. Tragedy into policy: A quantitative study of nurses' attitudes toward patient advocacy activities. Am J Nurs. 2011;111(6):26-35.
  34. King G, Scudder JN. Reasons registered nurses report serious wrongdoings in a public teaching hospital. Psychological Reports. 2013;112(2):626-636. doi:10.2466/21.13.PR0.112.2.626-636
  35. Dean E. Opinion divided on extent of cultural shift in health service. Nurs Manag (Harrow). 2014;21(4):10-11. doi:10.7748/nm.21.4.10.s11
  36. National Health Service (NHS). Briefing Note: Issues highlighted by the 2014 NHS Staff Survey in England. Oxford: NHS; 2014.
  37. 37.   Dixon-Woods M, Baker R, Charles K, et al. Culture and behaviour in the English National Health Service: Overview of lessons from a large multimethod study. BMJ Qual Saf. 2014;23(2):106-115. doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2013-001947
  38. Dixon-Woods M, Suokas A, Pitchforth E, Tarrant C. An ethnographic study of classifying and accounting for risk at the sharp end of medical wards. Soc Sci Med. 2009;69(3):362-369.
  39. Vandekerckhove W, Brown AJ, Tsahuridu E. Managerial responsiveness to whistleblowing: expanding the research horizen. In: Brown AJ, Lewis D, Moberly R, Vandekerckhove W, eds. International Handbook on Whistelblowing Research Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar; 2014:299-327.
International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Volume 5, Issue 1
January 2016
Pages 59-61

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics