Problem
The?Winkler County or the Tidwell vs. The State of Texas?nurse whistleblower case?was a series of legal?battles?in?West Texas?related to the retaliation against two nurses who submitted an anonymous state medical board complaint against physician names?Rolando Arafiles?in 2009. The case drawn whole?national attention for its implications on?whistleblowing?by nurses. After witnessing what?believed to be unsafe medical practices, nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle submitted an anonymous complaint against Dr. Rolando Arafiles to the?Texas Medical Board?(TMB).When he learned of the complaint, Arafiles spoke with the sheriff of?Winkler County, alleging that the nurses' reports to the medical board constituted harassment. The sheriff investigated and obtained the TMB complaint, which provided enough information about Mitchell and Galle to make them identifiable.
The?nurses?filed an anonymous complaint to?state medical regulators?against him?who used herbal remedies?and?hospital?supplies to perform at-home procedures.?He also?ordered a friend, a county sheriff at the time, to investigate the complaint, which resulted in the nurses being?fired?from their jobs and?charged with?criminal?felonies?that could face jail times.?Galle and Mitchell were terminated from the hospital and faced criminal charges of misuse?and stolen?official information. Galle's charges were dropped before trial and Mitchell was acquitted by a jury. In the aftermath of Mitchell's trial, Arafiles, several county officials and a hospital administrator all faced jail time for their roles in the retaliation against the?nurses. The?case raised questions about the extent of whistleblower protection for healthcare providers who report patient care concerns to licensing authorities. Texas law included remedies against retaliation for whistleblowers, but Texas?State has?whistleblower laws that addressed appropriate prosecutorial conduct.
According to the Texas?Nurses Association?2014, "No one ever imagined that a nurse would be criminally prosecuted for reporting a patient care concern to a licensing agency.?After the Mitchell case,?protection from prosecution was incorporated into Texas whistleblower laws.?The Court of Appeals of Texas affirmed a lower court's finding that a county attorney was guilty of misuse of official information, retaliation, and official oppression, punishing Dr. Rolando?with ten years of imprisonment, probated for ten years, a $4,000 fine and a 120-day confinement.
The?beneficence?ethics of whistleblowing can only be understood in relation to its moral purpose, whether that?is to achieve a good outcome (as?consequentialist view) or fulfill a duty (as?deontological view). The consequentialist perspective is unable on its own to resolve problems arising from the balance of good and harm resulting from the act of whistleblowing (where considerable harm might be caused) or?of responsibility for that harm. However, a strong argument can be made for the precedence of the nurse's duty to the patient over her duty to the employer?and the Tidwell facility. Although both duties are based on an implicit or an explicit promise, the promise to?people?(the patients) must take precedence over the promise to an organization.
Task
i. Were the policies/resources available to them adequate for the situation?
ii. What policy/resource changes would you recommend?