Whether or not nurses in general would characterize it this way, their universal failure to report or record malfeasance would suggest that this excerpt from this letter from a former accute-care nurse is accurate.
“As for the discharge of my own moral and professional responsibilities, I said nothing to the families, nothing to any “higher authority”, nothing to the news media because I had been formally trained as a nurse not to tell the secrets of the medical profession. In fact, my education heavily stressed that to go outside the chain of command was unprofessional conduct, disloyal, would make me unemployable (bad references, etc.) and could possibly result in the loss of my nursing license.”
From:
Faith Gibson, Community Midwife (1917 Article 24, exempt)
Certified Professional Midwife, #96050001
North American Registry of Midwives
She worked in acute-care hospitals as a staff nurse for 20 years and as an out-of-hospital midwife for 13 additional years.
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