Moral Courage and Ethical Decision-Making in Healthcare Administration

This essay explores the crucial role of moral courage within healthcare administration. It begins by highlighting the prevalence of ethical dilemmas and the importance of upholding ethical values in the face of challenges such as medication errors, strained patient-practitioner relationships, and unreasonable demands. The paper emphasizes that moral courage enables healthcare administrators to represent ethical principles, which helps to prevent unethical behaviors and promotes honest environments. The essay also examines the effects of unethical conduct, including damage to patient-practitioner relationships and increased healthcare costs, and stresses the importance of leadership and ethical decision-making frameworks. The conclusion underscores the enduring importance of moral courage in shaping healthcare standards and promoting patient well-being.

Running head: MORAL COURAGE IN HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
MORAL COURAGE IN HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
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1MORAL COURAGE IN HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
Introduction
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so
rare.” – Mark Twain
Eradication of the physiological symptoms of a fellow patient, merely constitutes the tip
of the iceberg in today’s healthcare settings. The clinical scenario is overfilled with an array of
dilemmas and practices which dare to question the ethical values of healthcare professionals.
Amidst a clinical jargon of medication errors, faulty medical equipment, critical decision
making, strained client-practitioner relationships, staff misconduct and irrational family
demands, where the life of a patient lies probably at the edge of a knife – moral courage by
healthcare administrators, pose to be a ray of positivity (Sadooghiasl, Parvizy & Ebadi, 2018).
Importance of Moral Courage in Healthcare Administration
Moral courage implies the capability to represent one’s ethics, values and obligations
during a situation of misconduct. Moral courage in the healthcare scenario is all about standing
up for what is ethical and morally right, regardless of how critical or frightening the situation
may be (Hamric, Arras & Mohrmann, 2015).
The conductance of family and patient-centered approaches to treatment, is now an
utmost necessity for healthcare administrations. As impressive as it may sound, such treatment
approaches however, have lead to further complexities in clinical relationships between,
especially in the event of critical medical decision-making. Patients often exhibit unreasonable
demands beyond clinical logic, which result in ethical dilemmas. Further, prevalence of medical
errors or unethical behaviors by a healthcare provider results in a dramatic showdown of

2MORAL COURAGE IN HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
blaming, disrupted client relationships, increased medical costs and a loss of trust in the overall
clinical setup (Brown, 2015). Despite the lack of ethical or legal concern by certain
professionals, the presence of moral courage by even a small population of healthcare
administrations serves as a formidable force against such inequities, resulting in complete
disclosure and an environment of honesty. Hence, the display of moral courage by a healthcare
administrator is of utmost importance since it leads to prevention of expensive healthcare costs
and situations of blaming each other unnecessarily. The resultant improvements in patient health
experiences and mitigation of medical costs is what makes moral courage so essential in the
administration of healthcare (Numminen, Repo & Leino-Kilpi, 2017).
Effects of unethical/illegal behavior in Healthcare Administration
Unethical behavior in healthcare organization, not only sabotages the patient-practitioner
relationship – the very essence of patient-centered treatment – but also fatally harms the patient
as well as organizational functioning, due to the increased incidences of medical errors and
healthcare expenses. Hence, healthcare administrators must exercise successful moral courage
through leadership, delegation, documentation and adherence to standardized ethical models
such as the six step framework during ethical decision-making. Formulation and normalization
of a work culture, where ‘speaking up’ will not be invited with raised eyebrows, is a key step to
inculcate principles of moral courage in healthcare administration (Hutchinson et al., 2015).
Conclusion
Returning back to Mark Twain’s words in the beginning, the usage of moral courage may
still unpopular in a world where physical strength garners greater accolades. However, if there’s
anything in the world which possesses the ability to shape a nation’s health and shatter glass

3MORAL COURAGE IN HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
ceilings on misconceptions of medical authority – it is and will always be the strength to stand up
for what is correct, despite having trembling hands and an anxious heart.

4MORAL COURAGE IN HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
References
Brown, G. (2015). Ethical and Moral Courage is Distress among Professional Nurses: A
Workplace Issue. ABNF Journal, 26(3), 63-64.
Hamric, A. B., Arras, J. D., & Mohrmann, M. E. (2015). Must we be courageous?. Hastings
Center Report, 45(3), 33-40.
Hutchinson, M., Jackson, D., Daly, J., & Usher, K. (2015). Distilling the antecedents and
enabling dynamics of leader moral courage: A framework to guide action. Issues in
mental health nursing, 36(5), 326-335.
Numminen, O., Repo, H., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (2017). Moral courage in nursing: A concept
analysis. Nursing ethics, 24(8), 878-891.
Sadooghiasl, A., Parvizy, S., & Ebadi, A. (2018). Concept analysis of moral courage in nursing:
A hybrid model. Nursing ethics, 25(1), 6-19.