Healthcare Ethics Assignment: Client Complaint of Misconduct Analysis

This assignment addresses a scenario involving a female client's complaint of professional misconduct and inappropriate behavior by a co-worker in a healthcare setting. The student explores two potential approaches: dismissing the complaint or encouraging the client to report it. The assignment analyzes the consequences of each approach on the client, the co-worker, and the healthcare facility. It emphasizes the importance of protecting the client from harm and ensuring ethical conduct. The student supports their analysis with research, highlighting the psychological impact of sexual abuse disclosure and the need for reporting to prevent future misconduct. The assignment concludes by advocating for the approach that prioritizes the client's well-being and the prevention of further unethical behavior, referencing relevant literature to support the recommendations.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health care
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Answer 1:
There are two possible approaches to deal with a female client who has complained about
professional misconduct and inappropriate behaviour of my co-worker Frank:
1. The first approach that I can use is to reprimand the female client and take no response to
her complaint. Instead of raising the issue of ethical misconduct to the supervisors, I will
not believe her and instruct her not to report about this issue to any other staffs as this
would increase her risk of harm. I would say that our employees are aware about
professional obligations and behaviour during duty and no employee can engage in such
shameful behaviour.
I will use the above mentioned approach to save my co-worker from any professional or legal
action as I admire his work and cannot think of him to express such behaviour.
2. The second approach that I can use is to believe in the female’s client complain and
inquire more about how many times this incidence has happened. I will also inform the
client regarding the way to report about such sexual abuse to relevant authority. I will
encourage her to take this step to prevent her from future harm and ensure that adequate
ethical action is taken against Frank if he is found guilty.
I will take this action assuming my responsibility to protect client from any harm and
reporting about any unprofessional behaviour or misconduct to higher authority.

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Answer 2:
In case of the first approach, the female client may lose trust with the facility and suffer
from poor-esteem and depression. The client will be vulnerable to such form of abuse in the
future and she will fear about reporting it to anyone.
In case of the second approach, the female client will be empowered to immediately
report it to the higher authority. This step will reduce her fear and anxiety and she will feel
protected. She will also have trust on the facility and have the belief that the facility serves the
best interest of the client. Andalibi et al. (2016) supports that support seeking and first time
disclosure about sexual abuse has positive psychological impact on victims as they information
support and esteem support.
Answer 3:
The first approach to deal with complain about sexual abuse against Frank will have no
effect on him as no one will know about his unethical behaviour and he may continue to engage
in such undesirable behaviour in the future too. This can increase risk for other female clients
visting the facility.
The second approach would have a significant affect on Frank as this would lead to
initiation of inquiry against him and if he is found guilty, he will also be at risk of being
dismissed from the facility with immediate effect.
Answer 4:
I feel the second approach of encouraging the female client to report about the incidence
to higher authority is a better choice to make because this will protect the interest of both the

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client and my co-worker. If Frank is not guilty, it will not have any effect on him. However, if he
is guilty, taking adequate legal action against him would help to protect the client from any
future harm. It will also prevent any future case of sexual misconduct in the facility. This is
important because perpetrators of abuse are not involved in just one sexual assault. They might
be living freely even after committing several such acts. Hence, reporting would help to curb
such acts by the perpetrators and take proper disciplinary action against them (Franklin & Garza,
2018).

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References:
Andalibi, N., Haimson, O.L., De Choudhury, M. and Forte, A., 2016, May. Understanding social
media disclosures of sexual abuse through the lenses of support seeking and anonymity.
In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems (pp. 3906-3918). ACM.
Franklin, C. A., & Garza, A. D. (2018). Sexual assault disclosure: the effect of victim race and
perpetrator type on empathy, culpability, and service referral for survivors in a
hypothetical scenario. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260518759656.