Whistleblower Protection Program

Whistle-blowers are supposed to be the advocates for the patients. Nurses especially have the right to protect the patients. This means speaking up when they see something wrong, even if it is the doctor that is doing wrong. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a “Whistleblower Protection Program.” This program protects employees who report violations at the workplace for safety and health (US Department of Labor, 1999). But does this always work? No. At least not when it came to a concerned nurse that wanted to protect her patients. Anne Mitchell had been working at Winkler County Memorable Hospital for 20 years. She was there when the arrival of a new Doctor came to the facility; Dr. Rolando Arafiles Jr started out working part time in the clinic. Although even before he came to the hospital he was on probation and fined $1,000 by the Texas Medical Board for practicing outside of his scope of practice. But tension arose when Anne, and her fellow nurse Vicki, found out the Dr. Arafiles was
Arafiles was doing, but most were afraid that if they spoke up they would get fired, but Anne had seen enough and with the help of her nursing friend Vicki she wrote a letter to the Texas Medical Board in regards to multiple patients (whom were referred to as their chart numbers) in whom received these “botched” care from Dr. Arafiles. They signed it anonymously and sent it in. It only took a week later for another letter to come back to Dr. Arafiles, stating that he was being investigated due to a serious complaint. Outraged about this he went to a close friend who also happened to be Sheriff Robert Roberts and a past patient. Dr. Arafiles told Sheriff Roberts that he was being harassed. Sheriff Roberts was allowed a copy of the complaint since he was going to be investigating the alleged harassment. Once Sheriff Roberts and Dr. Arafiles looked over then note that were able to narrow it down to who wrote the