LaTawsha Estell
BSHS 335
06-07-15
Professor Tracey Smith
Case Study Review Case Study Number One “But I Consider Myself to Be Credentialed”
In summarizing the case study Lydia graduated from college and began her career. Because of her husband’s transfer she was able to work with her old friends from college Fernando and Matilda. When she started the job it did not require the specific credentials according to Fernando. Once Matilda became familiar with Lydia’s situation she didn’t give Lydia options to make sure her credentials were on file. The case review didn’t explain that Fernando and Matilda made those judgment calls because of their friendship but it was obvious that they wouldn’t have let it happen with …show more content…
anyone else.
Due to the fact of the history between Fernando, Lydia, and Matilda, no one had the ethical responsibility to verify Lydia’s credentials. The employers, Fernando and Matilda are at fault for not inspecting Lydia’s license. This dereliction of duty not only compromises their business but their work ethic and professional opinion. This sign of incompetency speaks volume of their ability to inspect what they expect and can haunt them in the future with future clients.
As a human service professional I feel that Lydia should have had more integrity and been upfront with her employers despite the fact that they were friends in the past. Because Matilda was in desperate need of Lydia to teach nights and Lydia needed more money so she totally overlooked her credentials which goes back to the saying “It’s not what you know but who you know”, when it comes to landing dream jobs.
Fernando, who was the Director of Health Information Management at Springfield Memorial Hospital should have inspected what he expected.
I understand that they are old classmates and she helped him out, but the ethical thing to do was to cover themselves and Lydia. Penalties can be severe if violations are found. You can work hard all your life and work up a great reputation with your higher ups and build trust and just one mistake can erase all those years of hard work that you built. This needed to be handled from the beginning. The truth comes out no matter how long it seems to hide. Something extreme such as your job being on the line should have been investigated more and Lydia not having her credentials could have been established from the beginning and they could have made other arrangements to get them completed and at least she could have been working on it. It seems as if Matilda tried to use other tactics to hide her not having credentials such as giving her certificates that showed she completed the seminars, which is still not qualified enough. That seemed to be ethical wrong as well because as a leader Matilda was trying to cover up for Lydia until surveyors researched more into the situation.
In respecting Lydia’s confidentiality, it was difficult not to because it was putting other’s job on the line. As a professional, Lydia should not bring the stress of her personal life into her workplace. She needs to separate the two. Fernando can approach her credentials
without having any knowledge of personal hardships Lydia may be experiencing. There really isn’t a confidentiality piece here because even the officials needed to talk to Lydia to tell her that due to her experience she was able to teach some classes but most classes she wouldn’t be able to because she didn’t have her credentials.
In recognizing multicultural ethical behavior, assuming that Lydia and Fernando were different ethnicity, I can’t say if this scenario would have played out any differently. Ethics are based on integrity. Fernando and Lydia’s integrity are both unpredictable. I think they were ethical in helping out a friend but not when it came to the rules and laws of the job. This situation does not play a part with multicultural ethical behavior being as though that means that culturally some groups of people ethical beliefs are different from others. Although her friends needed her right away and helped her in the end it came out and Fernando and Matilda should have been punished as well. They ruined her situation in the end by helping her in the beginning.
References:
Ethics Case Studies for Health Information Management, Leah A. Grebner