Reporting misconduct of a coworker to protect a patient: a comparison between experienced nurses and nursing students.
OBJECTIVE
Whistleblowing is the reporting of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices to persons or organizations that may affect the action. The current study compares experienced nurses to nursing students regarding their willingness to blow the whistle to protect a patient's interests.


METHODS
165 participants were divided into two groups: 82 undergraduate nursing students and 83 experienced nurses. Participants responded to two vignettes that described a colleague's and a manager's misconduct at work.


RESULTS
The nursing students perceived the severity of the misconduct significantly lower compared to the experienced nurses. The nursing students also ranked the internal and external whistleblowing indices higher than the nurses, but the differences did not reach statistical significance. For each of the examined internal and external indices, professional experience was found to be significant in multivariate regression analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Even though nursing students perceived the severity of the misconduct significantly lower than the experienced nurses, the students demonstrated a greater readiness to blow the whistle, both internally and externally. Recommendations for handling comparable situations are offered.
Department of Philosophy, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel.
Abraham
A
Mansbach
Department of Public Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel.
Talma
T
Kushnir
Department of Nursing, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel.
Hana
H
Ziedenberg
Department of Public Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel.
Yaacov G
YG
Bachner
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D028701:Patient Rights; D028743:Professional Misconduct / Q000941:ethics*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035642:Whistleblowing / Q000523:psychology*