Ethics in Nursing
There are several justifications why a person should go to work hen sick. Among them is the lack of an alternative income source and will have to depend on the paycheck. The workplace policies may also compel a person to go to work to avoid the possible consequences of failure to do. The family demand may also make a person go to work when sick to avoid being fired. Basing an argument on these issues, it may make sense for a person to go to work. Additionally, a nurse may go to work while sick because of the principle of welfare. The need to address the patients’ welfare may make the nurses go to work while sick so that the patients do not go unattended (Moss, 2015).
However, depending on the ethical perspective, it is ethical to go to work while sick, one of the reasons is that some illnesses can be passed from one person to another, for example, Covid 19 and this endangers the other employee’s ion the workplace which may paralyze the operations. Furthermore, going to work while sick undermines the principle of fairness (Weinstein, 2010). When a nurse goes to work when sick, they may not be able to meet the client’s diverse needs, and if we cannot have offered adequate services to the clients, then we become unfair. Additionally, taking the diseases to a coworker is also unfair and may bring confrontation is they realize the issue could have been avoided. Additionally, according to the principle of presenteeism, going to work while sick is unfair to the employers (Hemp, 2014). When the employees are overly motivated to an extent, they cannot miss going to work accounts for up to 80% of the company’s health costs (Weinstein, 2010). this will make the organization to incur significant costs in dealing with the illness that probably could have been managed at home. Additionally, going to work while sick is also being unfair to oneself. No matter the policies that govern the workplace, every employee needs time to get better, which helps in quick recovery.
References
Hemp, P. (2014, August 01). Presenteeism: At Work-But Out of It. Retrieved July 11, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2004/10/presenteeism-at-work-but-out-of-it
Moss, J. D. (2015). Ethical concerns of working while ill: Presenteeism. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 146(9), 711-712. https://jada.ada.org/article/S0002-8177(15)00703-5/pdf
Weinstein, B. (2010, June 22). Should You Go to Work When You’re Sick? Retrieved July 11, 2020, from https://theethicsguy.com/2008/02/28/should-you-go-to-work-when-youre-sick/#:~:text=No matter what the policy, much to hasten your recovery.