Key Learning Points

• Understand the moral aspects of whistle blowing

• Identify the consequences of whistle blowing

Introduction

There can be few perioperative practitioners who do not prefer the work of some surgeons to that of others. Some surgeons make the work look easy. They are calm under pressure. They use the minimum amount of equipment. Other surgeons just seem to have ‘an unusual amount of bad luck’. But for the operating department practitioner or nurse who witnesses this phenomenon, there will be a question that will occur again and again: ‘How much poor practice could I stand to watch before I spoke out and said something?’

Dilemmas over what should be spoken about in public and the best way to communicate dissatisfaction with standards at work are deep and complex. At one extreme, simply voicing concerns at work will be enough to rectify an unfortunate situation. At the other extreme, no amount of ‘going through the appropriate channels’ will be enough to correct even gross lapses in standards. In these circumstances, the employee has to face the prospect of drawing attention to the situation in the most difficult way possible, by whistle blowing (Shah 2005).