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Moral Courage and the Administrator’s Responsibilities
Order Instructions:
Moral Courage and the Administrator’s Responsibilities
As a health care administrator, you will have responsibilities to many people—to your employees, to the patients and their families, to the executive board, and to the agencies that monitor the organization’s behavior. There may be times when your obligations will apparently conflict with each other. What will you do then?
For this Discussion, you will reflect on your responsibilities as a health care administrator and describe the importance of moral courage in performing well in that role.
To prepare for this Discussion:
Bring to mind the kind of organization for which you hope to work as an administrator. To whom would you be responsible—for example, to patients, the governing board, the Joint Commission, the CEO, the staff, the community, your own conscience? What are the legal and ethical issues that could arise when these duties conflict? Think of an example of apparently conflicting obligations that would pose a challenge to you.
Define for yourself what moral courage means. How important is it for an administrator to exhibit moral courage? What is the effect on others in an organization if an administrator models ethical and legal behavior or, on the contrary, illegal or unethical behavior?
These are the question to be answered
To whom and for whom is an administrator responsible?
Why is moral courage important for an administrator, particularly in the face of conflict?
Briefly describe a scenario in which an administrator’s legal and ethical responsibilities might conflict, and moral courage is needed. What would you do in that situation, and why?
What do you expect the effect on others would be by your demonstrating ethical and legal behavior and showing moral courage?
Resource: Please use additional resources
Callendar, A. N., Hastings, D. A., Hemsley, M. C., Morris, L., & Peregrine, M. W. (n.d.). Corporate responsibility and health care quality: A resource for health care boards of directors. Retrieved Nov. 23, 2009, from http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/complianceguidance/CorporateResponsibilityFinal%209-4-07.pdf(PDF Document)
