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Interprofessional Education (IPE) Day 2024

Case 4

Clinical Vignette

You are on a patient care unit when you overhear two clinicians discussing one of their co-workers regularly arriving to work smelling of alcohol. The two on your unit state that they have brought it up to their manager on multiple occasions but nothing has been done. As they are talking, the co-worker in question arrives on the unit, and you also notice her smelling of alcohol. You walk the employee in question to her manager’s office who tells her to “go home and sleep it off.” You question the manager as to why he did not take further action and he states, “She’s like this a lot and I just send her home because her husband is an administrator here and I don’t want to lose my job.”

Discussion Questions

  1. What are the ethical implications for the manager, your co-worker, and you?
  2. What would you do after overhearing this conversation?
  3. What consequences do you foresee for the patient and the provider/practice?

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