Vol , Issue Date of Publication: September 12, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2018.071

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Blowing the whistle: Perceptions of surgical staff and medical students in a public South African hospital

Ter-Er Kusu-Orkar
Alexander L Symonds
Harry C Bickerstaffe
Nikki Allorto
Stuart Oultram
Abstract:
Understanding perspectives on whistleblowing is important in tackling a resistance to speaking out. This study aimed to elicit the views of medical students and doctors in Edendale Hospital, South Africa using a mixed-methods questionnaire study incorporating free text and tick-box answers. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to interpret the results. Fifty-eight doctors and medical students responded (87% response rate); the majority were surgeons at Edendale hospital. Seventeen percent did not understand the concept of whistleblowing, while 42% felt unable to report an adverse event. Motivation for reporting adverse events was overwhelmingly in the interests of patient safety (91%), but reluctance was mainly due to the potential consequences on workplace relationships (24%). The most common innovation suggested was a reporting structure (54%). These observations indicate workplace relationships are an important barrier to whistleblowing. Further research should expand on these concerns and explore staff knowledge about whistleblowing.


Copyright and license
©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2018: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0),
which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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