“Under the sword of Damocles”: psychologists relate their experience of a professional misconduct complaint

ABSTRACT

Health practitioners run the risk of ethical board complaints or legal action against them in their professional careers. This experience can have a detrimental impact on personal wellness and professional practice. This study reports on the subjective experience of ten South African psychologists who received complaints. Semi structured interviews were conducted, and the transcripts analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The data indicates that (1) the participants experienced the effects of a complaint on an intensely personal level and (2) the experience of a complaint highlighted the challenging nature of working in the modern health care arena. The researchers hope to inform the psychological community of the emotional challenges experienced during a complaint process, to encourage a transparent discourse about the subject and muster support for practitioners during an often-isolating professional incident.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• complaint
• phenomenology
• professional misconduct
• psychology

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

DATA DEPOSITION

The dataset is not made publicly available in order to protect the anonymity of the participants.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

¹ PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors. The first author received a postgraduate bursary from the North-West University as this study formed part of her studies toward a doctoral degree.