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2 pages/≈550 words
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Style:
APA
Subject:
Health, Medicine, Nursing
Type:
Research Paper
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

Policy and Law

Research Paper Instructions:

PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT.
This assignment allows the student to analyze and apply his/her organization’s human resource policies in relation to specific laws and professional ethics. This assignment contributes to the student’s achievement of learning outcomes of this course. 
The body of the paper should be no longer than two -three (2-3) pages (maximum). This page limit does not include the title or reference pages. This paper must be written in third person.
Scenario: 
You are the Vice- President Patient Care Services in Health Care Provider Organization. You and one of your department managers are conferring with the Vice President of Human Resources regarding how to handle a situation that has just come to light. An RN on the manager’s unit was discovered diverting Adderall from the Pharmacy return bin for discontinued medications. This employee has worked for the organization for 10 years and has a satisfactory performance record (nothing stellar but no performance issues). He readily admits to the diversion but states he has been under a lot of stress recently and begs for forgiveness. Recently, his wife quit her job, filed for divorce and left him alone to care for their two children. She stated that she could no longer handle dealing with the care of their youngest who has been diagnosed with learning disabilities. In addition to working & caring for the children, he’s not sure he can afford the mortgage payments without his wife’s income, so he has been picking up as many overtime hours as possible. “I know it was wrong, but the patients didn’t need the drug anymore and I needed help to just stay awake & keep going. I didn’t see another way out.”
You and your manager want to report the RN to the Board of Nursing’s peer assistance program. However, the Vice President of Human Resources states that the organization has just fired a 15 year cafeteria worker for stealing food. She sees that drug diversion is stealing, for which immediate termination is “policy”. She believes the organization must treat all infractions in the same manner. “The cafeteria worker said she was just trying to feed her family. Why should we treat an RN any differently? A thief is a thief and has no place in this organization.”
How do you respond? On what legal and ethical basis will you build you case? Would your decision/opinion change if the employee was not a RN but had same employment history?

 

 

University of South Florida College of Nursing

NSP 4881 Health Care Human Resources Systems and Strategies

 

Organizational Policy & the Law

 

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

 

As noted by Fried & Fottler, laws and regulations surrounding human resource management are complex, interdependent and sometimes in conflict. The legal requirements imposed on an organization often shift according to industry or state specific regulations. Even when laws have not specifically changed, the interpretation of laws by the courts can have significant impact on policy & management actions.  The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and ability to apply relevant principles and concepts covered in the course to the examination of legal and ethical underpinning of human resource management.

 

Before you begin, carefully review these instructions and the grading rubric for this assignment. The Policy & the Law Paper is worth 15 points and constitutes 15% of your grade for this course.  This paper is automatically submitted to Turnitin to screen for plagiarism. It is also highly recommended that you submit your final draft to SmarThinking to assist you in proofing your paper.

 

 

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

 

This assignment allows the student to analyze and apply his/her organization’s human resource policies in relation to specific laws and professional ethics. This assignment contributes to the student’s achievement of learning outcomes of this course.

 

The body of the paper should be no longer than two -three (2-3) pages (maximum).  This page limit does not include the title or reference pages. This paper must be written in third person.

 

Scenario:

You are the Vice- President Patient Care Services in Health Care Provider Organization.  You and one of your department managers are conferring with the Vice President of Human Resources regarding how to handle a situation that has just come to light.  An RN on the manager’s unit was discovered diverting Adderall from the Pharmacy return bin for discontinued medications.   This employee has worked for the organization for 10 years and has a satisfactory performance record (nothing stellar but no performance issues).  He readily admits to the diversion but states he has been under a lot of stress recently and begs for forgiveness. Recently, his wife quit her job, filed for divorce and left him alone to care for their two children. She stated that she could no longer handle dealing with the care of their youngest who has been diagnosed with learning disabilities.  In addition to working & caring for the children, he’s not sure he can afford the mortgage payments without his wife’s income, so he has been picking up as many overtime hours as possible. “I know it was wrong, but the patients didn’t need the drug anymore and I needed help to just stay awake & keep going. I didn’t see another way out.”

 

You and your manager want to report the RN to the Board of Nursing’s peer assistance program. However, the Vice President of Human Resources states that the organization has just fired a 15 year cafeteria worker for stealing food. She sees that drug diversion is stealing, for which immediate termination is “policy”. She believes the organization must treat all infractions in the same manner.  “The cafeteria worker said she was just trying to feed her family. Why should we treat an RN any differently?  A thief is a thief and has no place in this organization.”

 

How do you respond? On what legal and ethical basis will you build you case? Would your decision/opinion change if the employee was not a RN but had same employment history?

 

  1. Paper Content

 

  1. Introduction: Discuss why this topic is important to the field of human resources and health care. Do not repeat the case scenario.
  2. In the body of your paper
    1. Discuss the policies and ethical principles which  influence your decision making
    2. Discuss the concept of “fairness and consistency” in applying policies. Does this mean everyone is treated “the same”?
    3. What should be the role of HR vs. line management in the final decision?
  3. You must show evidence that support your conclusions.
  4. B.     Writing Guidelines
    1. Write the paper based on the assumption that the reader knows nothing about the topic or purpose of your paper---as you would if you were preparing a manuscript for publication.
    2. Follow APA formatting guidelines for your paper found in the APA manual.
      1. Headings may be used but in a short paper, are not mandatory in the body of this paper (See page 62 in the APA Manual).If you use headings, use level 1 headings only and do not use Roman numerals or numbers in your headings
      2. Since there is generally a very limited use of direct quotes in scholarly and scientific literature, the use of direct quotes is discouraged for papers in this course.  If you do use direct quotes, there should be no more than two (2) in the entire paper. They should be very limited in length, generally a sentence or less. In addition, whenever used, you must explain how the quote is relevant to the point you are making in the paper.  
  5. There is a minimum of three (3) evidenced based and/or peer reviewed references required for this paper.
    1. You may use your organization’s policies or employee handbook as a reference. You may also use personal communications as one of the references if you seek advice from HR or others  experts.
    2. All references should be dated, unless the date is not available and the source is a widely recognized, authoritative website (e.g. Florida Board of Nursing, ANA, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, HHS.gov, etc.).
  6. Be sure to check your Turnitin score prior to final submission. Review the findings and revise your paper if your score exceeds 25%.
  7. It is also highly recommended that you submit your final draft to SmarThinking to assist you in proofing your paper

 

 

  1. Required components/elements of the paper include:

 

  1. Title page (page 1) with required elements as outlined in the APA manual
  2. Introductory Paragraph follows placement of the title at the top of page two (2) and introduces your reader to the subject of your paper and the major concepts that will be presented in the paper.  It should not indicate that this is a course assignment.
  3. Body includes the discussion of items contained I A-2 above on the topic you have selected. Organize the body using Level 1 section headings; see page 62 in the APA manual for information on use of section headings.
  4. Summary one or more paragraphs summarizing key points from the body of the paper  
  5. Reference list - Minimum of three (3) recent evidence based or peer reviewed references required.  References must have of publication date and be in alphabetical order.

 

  1. D.    Required Format and Headings:*

 

Title Page

Introduction (no heading)

Body (note, headings are optional for this paper and you may change number & title of headings based on your position on this topic) 

  1.                                                              I.      [Law & Ethical principles] (Level 1 heading)
  2.                                                           II.      [Fairness and Consistency] (Level 1 heading).
  3.                                                        III.      [Solving divide between HR & Line management] (Level 1 heading).

Summary (Level 1 heading)

References on a separate page; must have date of publication and be in alphabetical order.

 

 

 

 


Research Paper Sample Content Preview:

Policy and Law
Name:
Institution:
Introduction
Disciplinary actions are not just hard on the victims of the circumstances but also on the disciplining personnel. Different companies and agencies have varying methods that they use to pass judgment, justice and penalties to the employees. However, there is hardly any difference on the amount of pressure that either of the parties has to bare within the process. In most of the cases the disciplinary and the justices system that is used by the organization in question always fall in either a rigid matrix or a flexible matrix. In the rigid matrix, the employees are punished with strict severity regardless of the circumstances they were in when they committed the offense. In the flexible matrix, the disciplinary team may weigh the circumstances into the judgment (Cole, 2004).
Ethical and Policy Provisions Factored Into the Judgment
According to the policies of the health care organization, any member of the staff that is found guilty of stealing anything from the premises or the other staff will have their employment terminated immediately (Adjabeng, 2014). However, this is not a rational decision and the ethical principles of fairness dictate that the circumstances within which the offence was committed be factored into the judgment. It is also important for the firm to apply the principles of justice and fidelity. Terminating employment without considering the aspects of observing justice is self serving for the firm. The nurse has shown every sign of fidelity in the past until his recent predicament due to his personal turmoil. The firm cannot justify the policies in isolation of these principles. As such the organization policies cannot be considered in isolation of the fact that ethically, the nurse had to deal with a difficult situation in his life. Given that none of the staff including the human resources department and the management is oblivious of social problems, the nurse should be let off with a warning and offered guidance on his personal crisis.
Fairness and Consistency
The flexible matrix is informed by the fact that, while it may be easy to put to paper a strict matrix management style, fairness and consistency tend to be at opposing sides of the real scenario and how it plays out. The reality is that, not all employees are equal and while consistency may call for the immediate termination of employment for staffs that violate the company policy, there is more than one factor that has to be considered (Prost & Camprubí, 2012). There are factors such as performance, circumstances, situations and contribution of the employee to the company, which is what fairness, is all about. Consistence, on the other hand, calls for total disregard of all these factors and implementation of the core policies of the company (Judge & Martocchio, 1995).
Motivation is one of the most crucial elements in any work place. This means that if the processes that are integrated into the work place have to be considerable, every employee has to be treated in a manner that is respectful and considerate of their contribution and their performance among other factors. As such, it is important that the nurse in the scenario is treated fairly. Having worked for more t...
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