One ethical dilemma that I have faced took place at a former job a few years ago. I was in the pharmacy with two other coworkers when the incident occurred. One of my coworkers accidentally sold the wrong prescription to a patient who returned an hour later demanding a refund. The employee apologized and refunded the patient’s money and put the prescription back into the shelves. The incident that I witnessed was a HIPAA violation that required specific protocols to be followed. The employee was supposed to call the other patient and tell her that her PHI (Personal Health Information) was compromised. An official report of the violation was supposed to be filled out by the employee and then handed to the manager. I asked my coworker if he was going to contact the patient and file the report, but he told me no, and that I should mind my own business. I knew that what the employee was doing was wrong. However, I was afraid to report it to the manager for fear of ruining the relationship with my coworker. I also feared that it may end up in a situation of my word against his.

A week passed and I was then faced with a similar occurrence. The same coworker was not paying attention and sold the wrong prescription. At this point, I knew that I had to speak up and say something in order to stop this behavior from continuing. I filed the report about what I witnessed and gave it to the manager who conferred with the employee and me about the incident. The employee eventually confessed to not following the proper protocols. The situation was finally resolved as I had overcome my fears and decided to do the right thing. And, if I could go back to the past, I would have reported the first incident to the manager and had the employee fill out the necessary paperwork.

My ethical dilemma highlighted the notion of right vs wrong problems as discussed in the article entitled, “Four Questions for Analyzing The Right-Versus-Right Dilemmas of Managers by David Christensen and Robin Boneck. I knew that the right thing to do was to notify my Manager the first time. However, I was afraid of the possible repercussions of my actions and I hoped that the employee’s personal moral code would persuade them to self-report the incident.

Taking the ethical dimension from the personal to the broader level of the state and society, there are some significant challenges that the nation faces as our global presence grows. These challenges cover a wide range of situations and viewpoints about issues that are often difficult to solve. The key factor is that all these issues have one thing in common: the choices that we make or do not make will have far-reaching consequences. So, in a world that is rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected, there is the paramount ethical challenge of what we see as our national purpose and interest.



References



Christensen, D. S. (2010). Four questions for analyzing the right-versus-right dilemmas of

managers. Journal of Business Case Studies, 6(3), 53-57. Retrieved from

http://www.cluteinstitute.com/journals/journal-of-business-case-studies-jbcs/