PP1 - Topic 1 - Intro to Being a HC Provider PDF

Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider TOPIC #1 – INTRODUCTION TO BEING A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER Welcome to Professional Practice 1, the first course of the Massage Therapy Diploma Program at CCMH! ➢ Professional practice course...

Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider TOPIC #1 – INTRODUCTION TO BEING A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER Welcome to Professional Practice 1, the first course of the Massage Therapy Diploma Program at CCMH! ➢ Professional practice courses should be viewed as personal and professional development. The attitudes, values, and commitment of a health professional are discussed and adopted as students explore the topics of ethics, boundaries, communication, and the therapeutic relationship. ➢ Our first exercise is to establish who we are now and what brought us to massage therapy. What are our present intentions for the program and for our future careers? INTRODUCTION EXERCISE ➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ Who is your instructor? Why are you interested in a career as a healthcare professional? Why did you choose Massage Therapy in particular? What values do you personally believe are most important for Massage Therapists as healthcare professionals? COURSE EXPECTATIONS ➢ This course requires participation! Group discussions provide an excellent way to ensure that everyone understands the material, and allows questions to be asked in an open, inviting environment. ➢ Respect. For yourself, for your fellow students, for your instructor. o Not everyone is going to agree on everything, discussions flourish understanding. o Respecting opinions regardless of agreement is required. o "Agree to disagree" This may happen. In class, or in life. It's a necessary skill to have. ➢ What is required of you as students? o Participation – respond to forum posts, be a part of class discussions, be prepared o Commitment – do any assigned readings, writings, quizzes, and exams; submit items on time; identify areas needing improvement – strengths & weaknesses; enhance your knowledge, skill, and ability o Respect – read, agree to, and uphold the Student Promise; accept other opinions and beliefs as their own, without criticism; do not judge o Accountability – take responsibility for your words and behaviors; facilitate your own success; determine your own level of professionalism o Confidentiality – this is a cornerstone of professionalism; keep the confidence of others, both inside and outside the ‘classroom’ ✓ Activity: Click on & read the Student Promise Page 1 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider WHY STUDY ETHICS? KEY TERMS: (“Ethics of Touch”) ➢ Ethics: study of moral principles and appropriate conduct; can be applied to individuals, groups and professions ➢ Code of Ethics: conduct guidelines; set by professional organizations; functions to inform us of appropriate ethical behaviors and norms, supply direction for challenging situations, protects patients, provides a means of enforcing professional behavior. ➢ RMT Code of Ethics – asks us to behave honorably, upholding the dignity of the profession, working within our scope of practice, being patient-centered, respecting the practice, etc. ➢ Values: tangible and intangible convictions that an individual considers of intrinsic worth; based on beliefs and attitudes; involve what is desirable rather than what is right/just. ➢ Principles: an individual’s code of action and enables one to behave with integrity. ➢ Morals: the judgment of goodness/badness of human behavior and character; often based on cultural and/or religious standards; some actions are considered moral in some cultures and immoral in others. ➢ Laws: codified rules of conduct set forth by society and are generally based on shared ethical or moral principles; set the minimum standards necessary to protect the public’s welfare and are enforceable by the courts. ➢ Professionalism: quality of image an individual portrays; stems from attitudes and manifests through technical competence, communication skills, ability to manage boundaries, respect for patients and self, and business practices. ➢ Self-Accountability: an obligation/willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions. o Cornerstone of ethics!!!!! o About who you are and what you do when no one is watching o If well-developed: honest with yourself, answerable and fully responsible for what you do and say at all times o Have the ability to consider the consequences of your actions and are fully prepared to accept them. ➢ Question: Are you likely to be more ethical in your professional life than in your personal life? ➢ As massage therapists, we know we need to be knowledgeable, competent and accountable for the skills we must acquire clinically to provide safe and effective treatments. Page 2 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider ➢ What we often fail to recognize is the importance and value of that knowledge and skills in ethics and professionalism – it is what enables us to utilize and apply our knowledge of the health sciences and clinical skills. WE MAY KNOW THAT WE JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT WE DON’T KNOW! ➢ Q: Do we assume we know everything there is to know about ethics and professionalism? o A: No; behaving ethically and professionally does not come naturally for us. ➢ Q: Is it just ‘common sense’? Does everyone know how to behave ethically and professionally? o A: This may be a 2nd career for some, and they may not be aware of or familiar with the role, characteristics and requirements of a health care professional. o A: The “regulated” health care professions have other specified responsibilities and obligations that other professionals may not possess, the ability to think CLEARLY and RATIONALLY o A: This is a profession that is a continuous journey; where learning is always new and continuous WHY DO WE NEED TO BEHAVE ETHICALLY? ➢ Knowing what is the right thing to do doesn’t necessarily mean that we will do it ➢ Why are our jails and courts filled with individuals who knew what the right thing was, but still chose to do something different? ➢ What will motivate us to do the right thing? o i.e. fear of consequences of NOT doing the right thing…if discovered = punished (fined, jailed, lose license to practice) = to avoid undesirable consequences ➢ RMTs must behave ethically to avoid all the above, a superficial motive for ethical behavior as it comes from an external source: laws, ethical requirements imposed on us; we do not freely choose them ➢ OTHER REASONS: come from a much deeper place: they come from US and are not imposed on us. o We have made a personal and professional COMMITMENT to behave ethically, by our choosing to be a health professional, we commit ourselves to always behave ethically in our practice Page 3 of 10 o Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider We have promised our patients that we commit to ethical behavior – hard work for us to say, “We are ready and willing to follow through on our promise regardless of what happens.” o It ensures our patients that we will never change our willingness and readiness to be there to serve and promote their health and best interests, even if our lives and circumstances change, or even if our feelings about them change o We realize this commitment means that we know more than our patients do about their soft-tissue problems; that’s why they come to us o We recognize this commitment to patients who may need us to protect their interests because they are frail, elderly, mentally ill or young and immature, and may not be able to do so for themselves o We recognize our common humanity and shared vulnerability; we are all human and are susceptible to pain, illness, disease and death o If we can see ourselves in our patients and if we can realize that by protecting their vulnerability, we are also protecting our own, we will behave ethically o It FEELS GOOD to behave ethically; it is good for us. This can both mentally and physically benefit us: strengthen our immune system, alleviate chronic pain, stress, reduce blood pressure, gives peace of mind, makes us feel good about ourselves, and supports our personal growth and emotional well-being o Doing the right thing activates that area of our brain that lifts our spirits, makes us feel better and is associated with positive feelings and outcomes o If we behave ethically, we have a chance to feel like we are MAKING A DIFFERENCE, being part of a solution, not the problem o We are participating in building a better community, with more respect for us and our profession Page 4 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY • The best way we can ensure that we maintain public trust and confidence in us, is by acting with integrity and conscientiously exercising our personal and professional responsibilities and obligations. (Paiva, 2008) Q: What exactly does it mean that someone acts with integrity or is an integral person or therapist? A: Someone who acts: sincerely, honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and diligently in their personal lives and in their practice of the profession of massage therapy. (Paiva, 2008) WHY IS INTEGRITY IMPORTANT? ➢ It represents a basic human drive, something we want and need to be. ➢ It is the fullest expression of our humanity ➢ We cannot be accountable without it Three Core Needs that Drive and Motivate us: 1. Core or basic need to ‘love’, to care for and nurture others ▪ To affirm and validate them and reciprocally to be cared for and nurtured by others. 2. ‘Make a difference’ ▪ We need to feel that our lives matter. 3. To be ‘ourselves’ ▪ Unencumbered by our fears or by what we think we need to be to please others to be successful or to influence them. When we live in integrity we are who we are; when we practice massage therapy in integrity we are who we are also, fulfilling those needs: • • • • • To express our true selves, needs, beliefs and values To take responsibility for decisions we make, even when it is not easy to do so Integrity requires us to act from integrity We require integrity to make us feel good about ourselves We recognize and honor our humanity What happens when we find ourselves separated from our True Selves? • • • Life happens – demands of life steal our time away from trying to be who we are. “When we have more time, things will be different”. Why does it have to be this way? End up falling out of integrity and even using allies to keep us from living in integrity: beliefs that we are unconscious of, or don’t give much or any thought to. Page 5 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider WHAT ARE THESE BELIEFS/ALLIES? 1. LITTLE WHITE LIES ➢ Isn’t really a bad thing or dishonest; just a ‘small’ lie. Won’t hurt anyone ➢ Truth: Lying is still wrong, when we tell a big or little lie – this takes us OUT of our integrity ➢ Do the little lies have any negative consequences? How can we predict these consequences? How do we know who they will hurt? ➢ May look like the easy way out, but it really is NOT. ➢ Takes work and energy to maintain dishonesty; keeping a lie is often harder than telling the truth ➢ In the big picture of life: can damage our reputation and our self-esteem, makes us forget what we believe in ➢ Lying hurts everyone, but mostly OURSELVES. ➢ e.g. Call the owner of a spa where you work and tell him you are too sick to come to work so that you can take the day off to spend time with a friend from out of town. Will owner find out the lie you told? If so, will he trust you in other future instances, when you really need a day off and tell the truth? 2. IT MUST BE OK, IF EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT ➢ When someone else does something that we know is wrong, does that make it ok? ➢ When we lie to a patient or partner, and know that others also lie to their patients or partners, does this make it ok? ➢ Is this an excuse for doing it (lying) ourselves? ➢ If others are doing it too, is it really that bad or wrong? ➢ If it’s bad or wrong, then why are so many others doing it? ➢ This is just a rationalization: an EXCUSE to do what we want, knowing it is wrong. ➢ Our intuition tells us dishonesty is wrong: it harms others and ourselves ➢ This takes us OUT of our integrity. ➢ Justifying that bad behavior is ok, is the same as making an excuse for it and NOT taking ownership for the TRUTH. ➢ As healthcare professionals (HP’s), we have committed to behaving ethically, which drives us to do the right thing: to act with integrity. ➢ As HP’s, the public trusts us to do the right thing even when it isn’t always easy/convenient to do. ➢ As HP’s, we do the right thing because we are responsible and accountable to the public, who have entrusted in our care. Page 6 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider 3. IF YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON, IT’S OKAY TO NOT BE IN INTEGRITY ➢ There are times we feel justified in stepping out of our integrity when we believe we have a good reason. ➢ We say to ourselves it is important to be honest and to act with integrity, but we can’t when the price is too high or there is something more important than our being honest. ➢ E.g. You want to ask the owner of the spa where you work for some time off to spend with a friend from out of town, but that’s not what you tell him/her. – you are afraid that if you tell the truth, you might not get the time off – so you rationalize that thought, tell a lie and say you need the time off b/c you are ill. ➢ You are not comfortable with this, you don’t want to do it, but you just must lie. ➢ Truth: This is also just another excuse. ➢ We can always find a good reason not to act ethically. Are these reasons good enough for our patients, or are they good for us, as people of integrity? ➢ What is the answer then, when we ask this question from the patient’s point of view or from our own personal integrity point of view? 4. BEING IN INTEGRITY IS ABOUT NOT DOING BAD THINGS ➢ Ethical behavior and living in and being a person of integrity requires so much more of us than just not breaking the law, or our Code of Ethics or breaching the Standards of Practice to hurt our patients. ➢ Ethical behavior and being an integral therapist and person makes us do good and will benefit our patients in a positive way. ➢ Our patients come to see us hoping we will help them not hurt them. ➢ Sometimes to help a patient, we do more than what is expected of us, by going that extra mile. ➢ We wouldn’t do this if we weren’t behaving ethically or living in integrity. ❖ As HCP’s, we commit to the greatest good of our profession and our patients. o The more we do – better we feel about ourselves and about what we give/offer/benefit others. Doing More: ➢ Another way to make a difference, to fill our 2nd core need. ▪ e.g. Massaging a housebound patient in their home; becoming involved in our professional association, participating in research are all examples of doing more ▪ If you do more = you get more= your patients get more ▪ As HP’s, we commit to doing more, to live in integrity Page 7 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider 5. PEOPLE WHO COME FROM A PLACE OF INTEGRITY ARE EXTRAORDINARY ➢ Doing more means doing more work – are there times when we try to avoid this extra work? ➢ We rationalize that integrity requires too much of us, making us more like saints or heroes, too much work for ordinary people (like us) to handle ➢ We have busy lives, therefore only those who are extraordinary people can do more, or who have more time or money to make doing more a priority in their lives ➢ We rationalize that one day, when things are better, and we have more time and more money, we will try to do more ➢ There are those who do more and receive public recognition ➢ There are also those who do more but do NOT get recognized, but continue on, going that extra mile, because they know the more they give, the more it will make a difference in the life of their patients, and thus their own ➢ Do not have to do something ‘big’ to make a difference; can be as small as spending a few extra minutes with a patient who has had a tough week; working a shift for a colleague who has a family emergency ➢ Doing more also brings out the best in us, supports the growth and development of our best selves: the part that makes us feel the most alive and fulfilled WHAT CAN WE DO TO BE IN INTEGRITY? 1. BE SINCERE ➢ Mean what you say, say what you mean; be who you say you are ➢ Don’t pretend/be fake, especially to win someone over ➢ People can feel and recognize when we are sincere and respect us when we are ➢ People know when we are NOT acting with sincerity 2. BE HONEST ➢ Always speak the truth ➢ White lies set us up to fail ➢ The truth will always be discovered – once trust and credibility is lost; hard to win back, if ever ➢ People WILL find out what you did and this can lead us OUT of our integrity (we know when we cheat). So, knowing ‘how’ we succeeded, can we really enjoy the benefit from our ‘cheating’ behavior? Can we take pride in our accomplishments when we fall out of our integrity?? ➢ This undermines your credibility Page 8 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider 3. ACT RESPONSIBLY ➢ Keep your word, keep all promises, honor all commitments ➢ Be dependable, accountable and trust worthy – the public needs to be able to trust you. ➢ If they can’t count on us, will they come back for more massage? ➢ They can express their disappointment and share this with others; this can damage our reputation and future opportunities ➢ Difficult to build trust, easy to lose; responsible people are those who are trustworthy; this takes time, effort and a sincere commitment. 4. BE RESPECTFUL ➢ Treat everyone with respect and the way you would ideally like to be treated ➢ Regardless of their differences, value and honor all people ➢ Never abuse or try to manipulate others, even if you think it is for their own good. ➢ Let them decide what is in their best interests ➢ Give out the respect you want to earn, and treat people equally and impartially ➢ Treat them with courtesy, be polite, thoughtful and considerate; be sensitive to their feelings; communicate respectfully ➢ We provide everyone with access to our services, we do not discriminate for any reason and we are caring towards all 5. BE DILIGENT ➢ Be prepared to do your best every time ➢ Be reliable, thoughtful, finish what you start, try to overcome your obstacles ➢ Avoid excuses ➢ Look for ways to improve your work, keep all promises and commitments 6. BE CONSCIENTIOUS ➢ Choose to do the right thing because you have committed to the promise you made to others and to yourselves ➢ Do the right thing even if it is easier to do the wrong thing and no one would find out Page 9 of 10 Canadian College of Massage & Hydrotherapy (Halifax) PP1 – Topic #1 Introduction to Being a Health Care Provider ASSIGNMENT #1 – ETHICS LOG There are many different things, often small, that can erode our integrity. As you begin to transform from a member of the public into a health professional, it is important to take a moment and evaluate your decision making. The first assignment is intended to assist you in checking in with your decision making, and challenge it against your newly developing integrity model of the professional health care provider. This exercise is not a test, not for judgment, and will be kept confidentially between you and your instructor. Your mark will be based on your participation in this exercise, and not whether your issues or decisions are in alignment with the instructor’s professional judgment. Weekly Ethics Logs: Prepare typed Log Worksheets, using the templates found under Assignment #1, and submit weekly for the next 4 weeks. This 5-part assignment is due at the end of each week of the PP1 course: Worksheet #1 – due end of week 2 Worksheet #2 – due end of week 3 Worksheet #3 – due end of week 4 Worksheet #4 – due end of week 5 The final portion of the assignment is a summary of all 4 logs. Use the Summary Worksheet template found under Assignment #1. Summary - due end of week 6 Page 10 of 10