It’s that time of year again when Laura has to attend her employer’s mandatory education on how to be a good, moral, ethical person and not do what they do (bilk the government out of 700+ millions of dollars with bogus medicare charges- oops! did I say that?). Part of the corporate integrity agreement they have with the Feds is that all employees must attend this annual class and learn just how naughty it is to bill for unnecessary procedures and such because that is exactly what bedside nurses, like myself, do.
Yes, we also review that we shouldn’t peek at celebrities medical records unless we are directly involved in their care and unlike the medical workers at the hospital in New Jersey, I would not look at George Clooney’s medical records because he is too much of a sexy man to give birth to a sick or premature infant. George is a pretty nice guy defending the nosy hospital employees but this is one of those ethical and legal no-no’s so the hospital is in the right to suspend them. I guess something like this is just too easy for such a simple person like myself.
Perhaps I should have a better attitude about this annual Ethics Training and Review. I’m getting paid for it. I, like anyone else, could stand for the occasional reminder on ethical behavior in my day to day living. But really how am I supposed to when I hear my instructor tell us that in order to promote ethical behavior in the workplace we should recognize the people who do the right thing…you mean like those in the trenches at the bedside?
Of course they do which is why I keep attending these annual classes where I discover that medical ethics is a lot like golf.
?
I don’t play golf and since I keep being told to attend these ethics class I don’t understand either nor do I get the corollary. But I do get the final statement we were left to ponder over. We make ethics far too complicated than it has to be. Which, after all this, leaves me with an ethical dilemma. The mandatory education class is two hours long which is what my employer will pay for. But the class ran fast, in spite of our speaker’s difficulty running a Power Point presentation and turning on a dvd. So do I clock in for the full two hours or just for the hour and forty minutes that it actually ran?
Don’t ask.
I clocked in for an hour and forty minutes.
Maybe this guy can answer your ethics/golf riddle:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/05/link-between-golf-and-health.html
I had at least 3 ethics courses in college. The questions were strange, because the “right” answer was so obvious, but you had to battle between “who would know?” and “why not?” constantly.
You’re walking behind a guy and a hundred dollars drops out of his pocket, but he doesn’t see it. Do you pick it up and (a) give it to him (b) keep it for yourself (c) give it to a homeless man (d) give it to charity or (e) buy a nice gift for a loved one.
I would have clocked in for 2 hours.
Well, all I can say is that if you had to work at a sucky hospital like Palisades, you’d need some diversion too. I wonder how far they go to protect the non-famous patients’ privacy?