Whistle blowing in Healthcare: the right thing to do

Some may say that whistle blowers in healthcare are nothing but trouble makers, but I feel that they are courageous individuals. These are people who risk a lot to honor their Code of Ethics and alert someone to wrongdoing and neglect within a health care organization. Those who sit back and allow wrong doings to occur are the ones who should be frowned upon. Our society has become accustom to this unwritten law of not snitching on one another which is perceived as being a traitor. While I feel that the notion of whistle blowing is a courageous morale act, there are a lot of negative consequences that come from this act such as disillusionment, isolation, humiliation, formation of an "anti-you" group, loss of job, questioning of the whistleblower's mental health, vindictive tactics to make the individual's work more difficult and/or insignificant, assassination of character, and formal reprimand from superiors. Whistleblowers have been the driving force behind a series of recent major contemporary public inquiries that have clearly identified significant deficiencies in institutional healthcare quality and safety. In conclusion whistle blowing by health care professionals should not be considered morally wrong. If hospital authorities fail to take action over legitimate reported concerns, whistle blowing is likely to be the only means available to the individual to protect patients at risk of harm.