Identify Ethical Dilemma in the Workplace

The situation for discussion this week will be complementary therapies. Our nursing program currently does not have any type of teaching or learning bases for complementary therapies. These types of therapies are becoming more and more a part of the patient's choices of treatment. We have had some input from other organizations and community meetings concerning initiating non-conventional modalities to our curriculum. There are a few practices in the area that are trying to bring complementary therapies to our hospitals and offices. The program does not offer such therapies and in order to add something like this to our curriculum is going to be a time-consuming process. We don't have any type of research on this type of therapy and we don't have any type of learning materials or information to provide. If we were to attempt to initiate this type of therapy to our students, we would have to hire specialty people trained or knowledgeable in this topic. We are having a hard enough time trying to recruit nurses for teaching the present program of study. One of the most outstanding elements that plays a role in the decision of adding or not adding this therapy to our prospectus is how many instructors we have that don't believe in this type of therapy.

Analyzing Social or Cultural Forces

Analyze in some detail the role that larger social or cultural forces play in it.The people in the community and city of Ocala are more of a traditional type of individuals. The old timers here are very old fashion for most of their involvement with how and what comes and affect Ocala. Most of them are native Floridians and grew up here when the city was nothing but fields and horse farms. Now, Ocala has grown to become moderately a huge city, with a daily growing population. A lot of different issues and cultures are affecting the constant changes we see all the time. So when something new comes to town and tries to become a part of Ocala, it is a very big deal. They like their small restaurants and hospitals and have no desire to make changes to what they call home. When faced with new ways of healing or treating the public, well this could be a problem. Most of the elder population would consider this to be voodoo or some type of cult healing. It was like when computers first came out and the reaction everyone got when they were told that every house would need one in the near future.

Well that did not go over well and neither does introducing a complementary therapy as part of our healing process. Most comments stated about this new therapy were "well it can't cost anything if it is free, and complementary usually means free." So you can see that it wasn't very popular to the Ocala Floridians. They are very against any type of change that requires them to learn something new. They are still very hell bent on not learning to speak any language other than English. Most of us as the college are feeling a lot of rejection towards this type of alternative medicine becoming part of our core curriculum. After all this type of medical alternative has no scientific study. (Burkhardt & Nathaniel 2002) We as nursing instructors have always dealt strictly with conventional medicine. This overabundance of skepticism does not provide for a very healthy learning environment for any type of therapies. Complementary therapies often derive from pa4radigms that differ from, and may not make any sense in the conventional medical model. (Burkhardt & Nathaniel 2002) The nursing profession is not very optimistic to something that is trying to replace the conventional way of healing our patients.

Evaluating resolution to this Situation

Evaluating this situation should be the primary goal to our existing faculty. How does the faculty feel about the use of this type of therapy and do they think it should become part of our program? If the majority of the instructors do not believe in this type of therapy, it is going to be hard to sell it to students. We would also need to address our physicians and staff to determine their insight on the influence of the new wave of medicine. This type of evaluation and resolution would have to be through collective action. Collective action is the pursuit of a goal or set of goals by more than one person. It is a term which has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences. Control over practice means nurses has 'a voice in decisions that affect the patient care environment and their ability to deliver quality care' (Fitzpatrick, 2001, p. 41). We as nurses must stand up for what we believe and not be pushed aside by another source of medical healers that has no consideration to what we do in our practice. A non-contemporary medicine that insinuates that we are not healing our patients and we need some new found way of reaching our patients. As you have probably gathered by now, I am against contemporary medicine or therapy. This type of healing is not something I wish to push or offer to my patients when there is no scientific backing. This is all done on mind over matter or believing in something so much it will cure you. This is a type of therapy that needs a lot of research and a lot of preparation before initiating it into a nursing program. It also needs a lot of support and persuasion from the marketer.

References

Burkhardt, M. & Nathaniel, A. (2002). Ethics & issues in contemporary nursing (2nd ed.) New York: Delmar.

Budd, PhD, RN, CNS;Warino, BSN, RN, CPAN;Patton, RN, Karen W. ;Linda S.;Mary Ellen (11/03/2004 ). Traditional and Non-Traditional Collective Bargaining: Strategies to Improve the Patient Care Environment. Retrieved January 29, 2007, from Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Web site: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/490769

Solomon, MD , Hana R (2006 ). A Role for Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Patient Care?. Medscape Nurses , Retrieved January 29, 2007 , from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/530098

Sanderson CR; Koczwara B; Currow DC, (Aust. 2006; ). The "therapeutic footprint" of medical, complementary and alternative therapies and a doctor's duty of care.. PreMedline Identifier, 185, Retrieved January 29, 2007 , from http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/17014405