Brandey L. King (brandeyking@yahoo.com) is a Senior Project Manager, Healthcare Compliance & Ethics at McKesson in Irving, Texas, USA.

Like most young kids growing up, my career goals changed a lot. And I do mean a lot! From scientist to paleontologist to archaeologist, to veterinarian, I always knew I wanted to help others but didn’t know if I wanted to do it on a one-on-one level—like a nurse or doctor—because I was shy. Ultimately, I believe my natural logical and analytical strengths steered me towards the operations side of healthcare. I wanted to know more about what happened behind the scenes. The healthcare revenue cycle has been my industry of choice for the past 14 years, and I absolutely love it! In my opinion, working in the healthcare industry requires a certain mindset. With constant change, growth, and challenges, you must be able to adapt and make certain decisions quickly. Even with that being said, it baffles me to come across so many people who are hesitant or resistant to change in a constantly changing industry.

However, I also understand the hesitancy. Change brings about uncertainty; uncertainty brings about doubt; doubt brings about negative energy, and negative energy brings about stress. I think we can all agree stress causes us to make bad decisions and question our ethics. To say that “ethics” is a loaded word is an understatement. It has so many interpretations, understandings, and meanings depending on who you ask. To me, ethics are simply the north, south, east, and west of our individual moral compass.