Question

In the winter of 2010, a blizzard hit the Washington DC area. Hospital nurses were ordered to report to work when all of the other essential services (government offices, the Metro train, and all buses) in the Metro area were shut down. Many areas were left without power and the streets were impassable for the most part. The hospitals told their nurses that they would send someone out to their residence to bring them to work if necessary.

Eleven nurses refused to report for their shifts during the blizzard. The hospital fired them the following month. As a response, in August 2010, the nurses' union planned a one day strike to support their fired colleagues. What are the ethical dilemmas surrounding this situation? Be explicit.

Answer 1

Ethical dilemmas :-

exists when two or more rights, values, obligations, or responsibilities come in conflict. Conflict may arise between the nurses personal values and those of another person or the organization. So, in this case the nurses are on protest against the organisation for firing them because they refused to report for their shifts during the blizzard .

Now the conflict is that the staff nurses are fighting for their rights because they were fired while the organisation is giving rationale by saying that they have not followed the rules and regulations of the hospital even they said that they will send someone out their residence to bring them to work.

Nurses are right their side as they were afraid to travel during blizzard . On the other side the organisation is also correct to their side as they have provided the security for their staffs but the staffs refused and has gone against the law .