Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Personal and Professional Growth For Health Care Professional Full Chapter
Personal and Professional Growth For Health Care Professional Full Chapter
CHAPTER 6
Emotional Intelligence
The Students
What Are Emotions?
What Are the Primary Emotions?
Simple and Complex Emotions
Are Emotions Functional?
Can I Ignore My Emotions? Can I Hide Them?
Why Do I Always React the Same Way?
What Are Moods? What Is Temperament?
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Emotional Intelligence
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 7
Thinking and Cognition
The Students
Mind Mapping
Thinking
Analytical Thinking
Case Analysis: A Tool to Help You Think
What Is Intuition?
Is Intuition Inferior or Superior to Other Modes of Thinking?
What Is Judgment?
What Is Practical Intelligence?
What Is Stupidity?
What Is Wisdom?
What Is Expertise? Who Is an Expert?
What Are the Stages of Expertise?
What Do We Know About Experts and Expertise?
Your Thinking Is a Choice
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Thinking and Cognition
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 8
Millennials and Working Across Generations
The Students
How Do I View This Chapter?
What Is Generational Theory?
Generational Descriptions
What Is a Millennial?
Perceived Orientation of Millennials
Millennials: The Empirical Evidence
Working Across Generations
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Millennials
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 9
Impressions
The Students
First Impressions
Credibility
Credibility and Mistakes
Credibility and Not Knowing the Answer
Social Media
Real Professionalism
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Impressions
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 10
Professionalism as a Student
The Students
Professional or Student?
Factors That Diminish Professionalism
Academic Entitlement
Academic Incivility
Academic Dishonesty
Case for Professionalism in School
Student Professionalism as a Career Strategy
Personal Growth in School
Student Professionalism and Emotional Intelligence
Psychological Contracts
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Student Professionalism
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 11
Professionalism at Work
The Students
Work
What Are Some Facts of Organizational Life?
Supervisors
The Boss
Politics
What Is Prudent Paranoia?
What Are the Unspoken Rules of Work?
What Is Political Power? How Do You Use It?
Grapevines and Gossip
Are There Ethics in Organizational Politics?
How Do I Recognize a Toxic Political Environment?
Culture
Romantic Relationships
Sexuality and Sexual Humor at Work
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Work
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 12
Professionalism as a Clinician
The Students
Inner Work Life
Fear and Anxiety
What Is Worry?
Fear of Failure
Fear of Success
Emotional Labor
Compassion Fatigue
Burnout
Stress and Quality of Life
Stress and Performance
Attitude Toward Death
Psychological Capital
Perceived Self-Efficacy
Resilience
Hope and Optimism
Errors
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Inner Work Life
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 13
Interprofessional Relationships: Communicating and Connecting
The Students
Types of Professional Relationships
Power
Professional Transactions
Communicating and Connecting
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
Personal Learning Plan: Interprofessional Relationships
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
Suggested Readings
CHAPTER 14
Health Care in the United States
The Students
What Is the Value in These Readings, Statistics, and Graphs?
What Is Strategic Thinking?
The Prediction Dilemma
Basic Demographics
Healthcare Delivery in the United States
Healthcare Reform
The Economics of American Health Care
Financing American Health Care
The Outlook for General and Specific Healthcare Occupations
Health Trends and Issues: Predicting the Future
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
References
CHAPTER 15
Law and Ethics
The Students
What Is Law? What Are Ethics? How Do They Differ? What Role
Do They Play in Professional Responsibility?
What Are Standards of Care, Negligence, and Liability?
What if I Witness Other Healthcare Professionals or My Employer
Engaging in Unethical or Illegal Conduct?
What Are Duty to Warn and Nonmaleficence?
What Are the Elements of Informed Consent and Autonomy?
What Constitutes an Impaired Professional?
What Are My Licensing, Continuing Education, and Certification
Obligations?
Do Gender, Race, Cultural Sensitivity, and Health Literacy Issues
Apply?
What Are the Relevant Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act Requirements?
What Do I Need to Know About My Employment Contract?
What Obligations Come with Student Loans?
What Are Professional Boundaries?
Conclusion
What Do the Practitioners/Others Say?
The Students: Personal and Professional Issues
Exercises
What’s Important to You in the Chapter?
Reference
Suggested Readings
Glossary
Index
Preface
There is not a Single healthcare student anywhere who does not believe
he or she is going to be a competent, caring clinician and a consummate
professional who is an asset to the organization he or she works for and
the community he or she serves. To that end, professional schools and
the students themselves devote extraordinary amounts of time and
energy. Most of the time and energy is devoted to acquiring clinical
expertise with small slices of time and energy devoted to professionalism.
The forgotten variable in the transformation from novice to professional
is the students themselves. Generally, the rigor of most professional
programs crowds out time and energy for students to develop, reflect, and
learn about themselves. Grades in biochemistry or clinical practice take
precedence. This lack of personal development is a problem, because the
student as a professional cannot be separated from the student as a human
being. A student with an extraordinary sense of perfectionism will have
difficulty coping with the rough and tumble of practice when things go
wrong; the student who is excessively shy will never be able to take on a
senior clinician who appears to be making a mistake; and the student out
of touch with his or her emotional world may lash out when under stress.
All the material and career success in the world will not diminish the
discomfort of a practitioner who cannot get comfortable in his or her own
skin or resolve the tension between personal, family, and professional
obligations. Ultimately, this lack of resolution will impinge on clinical
practice and will tarnish professional reputations. Not considering the
individual as a variable in the professional development process is the
equivalent of running a race on one leg. Linking personal growth and
professionalism in a book has the potential to elevate both, because both
are inseparable mirror reflections of one another. Bringing the individual
into the equation also opens the door to consideration of the
psychological processes that drive personal and professional growth.
Obligations to work, family, and school mandate that many students
put their head down and then look up 4 to 6 years later when it is all over.
The economic pay-offs for this dedication are often substantial. However,
this narrow focus in response to the rigors of the programs precludes self-
reflection, personal growth, and enhanced self-awareness. As James Allen
noted, “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are
unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound” (1992, p.
30). In an attempt to break this boundary, the book interweaves personal
growth perspectives with discussions of professionalism.
Each chapter begins with vignettes that describe the personal and
professional issues confronting four fictitious students. The students are
as follows:
Dana S. is an 18-year-old woman who seemingly has it all, a great
family and a wonderful home. She is attractive and everyone
considers her nice. She never lacks for a social life. High school was a
breeze for her. She is abnormally reserved and hates being in the
limelight or dealing with confrontation. If asked to talk to anyone
but with her closest friends, she will blush. She really does not want
to go to school; her real ambitions are to have a family. Although
everything on the surface seems perfect, there are unspoken tensions
within her family. She is considering becoming a nurse or medical
technician.
Ivan T. is a 24-year-old product of a broken home. His father was an
abusive alcoholic who abandoned the family once Ivan confronted
his father about the abuse. The result was a diminished economic
circumstance for Ivan, his mother, and his sisters. Ivan had a chance
at a basketball scholarship that vanished as the turmoil increased in
his life during high school. For the past 6 years, Ivan has worked as
an aide in a psychiatric hospital and moonlighted as a bartender on
weekends. Ivan requested to work on the alcoholism unit of the
hospital. His work in the hospital has sparked an interest in Ivan in
becoming a psychiatric nurse.
Niki M. is a 27-year-old woman. She is the daughter of an immigrant
father who worked his way through college at night. She attended
college on an athletic scholarship and majored in English. In her last
semester in school, she fell in love with a charming man with little
ambition. When she found herself pregnant, she abandoned her
dreams of going to graduate school. Now that her son is entering
kindergarten, Niki has to face the fact that her husband will never be
the provider she wants. She has decided to return to school as a
single, working mother. Given her athletic background, Niki thinks
physical therapy will be a good match for her.
Ryan P. is a 47-year-old telecommunications executive who has lost
his job. He has two teenage daughters. One will be entering college
next year. College was a struggle for Ryan as an undergraduate.
Memorization and writing papers were a challenge for him.
However, Ryan knows that he never wants to be “downsized” again.
He is considering a nontraditional Doctor of Pharmacy program. He
is worried about the cost, how he will fund his daughter’s education,
and whether he can actually finish such a rigorous program. Ryan is
lured by the high salary and the job security of being a pharmacist.
The hope is that each student reading this text will be able to find
aspects of the fictitious students’ lives that resonate with their
circumstances. Each vignette has been written to contain a personal issue
and a professional issue confronting the student. Although I believe the
personal and professional issues confronting each student are relatively
apparent, particularly in light of the chapter topic they are linked to, the
vignettes allow the students to project their feelings and beliefs. Variance
in what each student sees should be expected and accommodated. There
is no right answer as to what the vignettes should evoke. The vignettes
serve as stimuli for classroom discussion and student reflection.
With most academic material, there is usually some attempt to relate
the material to the “real world” via a case example. The reason to read
these chapters and consider the ideas presented therein is that they
should make life and practice easier and more effective. If they do not,
then the time and effort are wasted. Clinical practice is a “full-contact”
sport played by real people with issues and lives who are required to make
clinical decisions while worried about their sick baby at home, how they
will pay their taxes, and the rocky status of their personal relationships. A
central premise of the book is that if you make better people, you will
make better professionals. Learning to be a professional is not theoretical,
a classroom exercise, or attained by memorizing some scribbles on a page;
it is an inherently human activity. In making recommendations as to what
the fictitious students should do, only completely nonperceptive students
will not see some comparison to their life.
Most chapters are designed to be read in class and are written in a style
that is concise and straightforward. The standard for inclusion of material
is based on the student lament, “Is this going to be on the test?” Only in
this case, the test is presumed not to be a pen-and-paper exercise, but the
reality of practice. It is a best estimate of the minimum a student should
know about these topics at this stage of his or her career. Think of the
book and the course as a base coat of paint, preparing the surface for the
colors and textures that practice and experience will add. This first coat is
necessary; without it, much of what happens in practice will not adhere
because it will be lost through lack of context, perspective, and reflection.
Understanding how rigorous professional programs are, the book seeks to
be efficient and judicious with the student’s time and emotional energy
for a topic that is a “side dish.”
The approach to learning in the book is based on the following
assumptions: (1) Students will see the value in this information and be
self-directed learners characterized as curious, motivated, disciplined,
methodical, reflective, self-aware, persistent, responsible, and self-
sufficient. (2) Not all students learn in the same manner. For some
students, personal and professional behaviors may be altered by
association with a colleague; others will need to read something; and still
others may need someone to talk to. (3) No two students will need to
improve the same aspects of their personal and professional lives; thus a
one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate. (4) Finally, there is no
express elevator to the pinnacle of professionalism. It requires
commitment to a process of gradual improvement. Small wins in the
pursuit of professionalism are the order of the day. These assumptions are
put into play through the development of an individual personal learning
plan.
The book is divided into 15 chapters. Chapters 1-4 present both a
content and process model of professionalism and discuss personal and
professional growth and the dark side of professionalism. Chapters 5-7
relate personality, emotional intelligence, and thinking and cognition to
professionalism. Chapters 8-13 take an applied perspective to
professionalism and discuss issues related to Millennials; creating
impressions; professionalism as a student, at work, and as a clinician; and
interprofessional relationships. Chapters 14 and 15 discuss the
environment that students will practice in, specifically health care in
America, and the legal and ethical context of practice.
A unique aspect of the book is the discussion on the psychology of
professionalism. This is a treatment of the subject not found anywhere
else. Professionalism is viewed as an ensemble of processes. Those
processes are:
Professional sensitivity—perception and interpretation of situations
as requiring a professional response, what is possible, what is
required, who will be affected, and how they will react.
Professional judgment—which course of action is the most
professional and what a professional should do in this circumstance.
Professional motivation—what priority the individual assigns to
professional obligations.
Implementation—what skills, courage, and tacit knowledge are
required to carry out the appropriate professional choice.
Each of these four aspects involves different kinds of cognitive–
affective interactions with no cognition without emotions, no emotions
without cognition, and no professional behavior distinct from the
underlying cognition and affect.
In addition to the vignettes and the discussion of the psychology of
professionalism, the chapters include the following pedagogical elements:
Mind mapping is used as both a pre- and postassessment exercise of
what the student thinks and believes about the specific topic of the
chapter. An essential theme of the text is that what one believes or
thinks about a topic is decisive in determining how they behave. This
exercise is grounded in the ideas of schema theory and cognitive
psychology.
Each chapter concludes with an exercise that asks the student to
enrich their understanding of the topic by discussing it with
colleagues or practitioners and relating it to movies or TV programs
they have seen or books or articles they have read and then
discussing in class.
Students using this book are treated as adults, meaning adults only
learn what they want to learn and in a way that suits their learning
style. To that end, self-directed learning is facilitated by the
inclusion of a template for a personal learning plan about the topic.
Questions are provided to structure comments and observations
about each of the students in the vignettes. The objective is get
students to understand that the topics under consideration are the
everyday substance of what their lives will be like upon graduation.
Students are asked to synthesize the chapter into a one-page
executive summary and to be even more succinct and reduce the
chapter topic to a two-sentence declaration of the ideas that will
likely change their values, attitudes, and behaviors. The assumption
is that within 6 months the students will remember very little of the
course. The aspiration is that they will come away with 15 personally
impactful ideas.
Each chapter also includes numerous exercises and questions for
discussion.
The objective with the text is to present the ideas in a clean, easily
readable format that is respectful of both the faculty’s and students’ time
and energies in a way that requires them to engage with the material.
Passive learning or unexamined acceptance of the ideas in the chapter is
not possible. Qualified instructors can receive helpful teaching tools
including lecture outlines in PowerPoint format, an instructor’s manual,
and a test bank. To gain access to these valuable teaching materials,
contact your Health Professions Account Specialist at
http:go.jblearning.com/findarep or call 1-800-832-0034.
The topics discussed in the book are, in part, the substance of life and
have been considered for ages. Although they may not be expressly
declared, they include what it means to be good, how you make yourself
happy, and what your obligations are to yourself and others. This is not
material to be memorized, but tasted, felt, observed, and examined.
Emerging from the course with 5 to 10 ideas with the potential to alter
your personal and professional life is the objective. As you move through
your program, ask the practitioners you encounter about these topics,
about their lives, and about their practices. I submit that thoughtful
practitioners will admit that the clinical side of things is easy and that the
tension between personal and professional demands is the struggle. I
know that this has been true in my life. This is a book I wish I had read as
a student.
Reference
Allen, J. (1992). As a Man Thinketh. New York: Fall River Press.
Contributors
58
Pittsburgh Gazette, January 23, 1801.
59
Collinson Read. An Abridgment of the Laws of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, MDCCCI, pp. 264–269.
60
Pittsburgh Gazette, December 7, 1799.
61
Neville B. Craig. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1848, vol. ii.,
pp. 354–355.
62
A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania, London,
1755, p. 12.
63
Tree of Liberty, December 27, 1800.
64
John Austin Stevens. Albert Gallatin, Boston, 1895, p.
370.
65
Major Ebenezer Denny. Military Journal, Philadelphia,
1859, p. 21.
66
Pittsburgh Gazette, October 23, 1801.
67
Dr. F. A. Michaux. Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany
Mountains in the Year 1802, London, 1805, p. 36.
68
Morgan Neville. In John F. Watson’s Annals of
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1891, vol.
ii., pp. 132–135.
69
Henry Adams. The Life of Albert Gallatin, Philadelphia,
1880, p. 68.
70
Tree of Liberty, November 7, 1800; Pittsburgh Gazette,
February 20, 1801.
71
Dr. F. A. Michaux. Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany
Mountains in the Year 1802, London, 1805, p. 29.
72
Henry Adams. The Life of Albert Gallatin, Philadelphia,
1880, p. 650.
73
Count De Gallatin. “A Diary of James Gallatin in Europe”;
Scribner’s Magazine, New York, vol. lvi., September,
1914, pp. 350–351.
74
Richard Hildreth. The History of the United States of
America, New York, vol. iv., p. 425.
75
Tree of Liberty, September 27, 1800.
76
Pittsburgh Gazette, February 6, 1801.
77
Political Miscellany, New York, 1793, pp. 27–31.
78
Tree of Liberty, March 13, 1802.
79
Tree of Liberty, September 19, 1801.
80
Pittsburgh Gazette, October 26, 1799.
81
William C. Armor. Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, 1873, p. 289.
82
Neville B. Craig. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1848, vol. ii.,
p. 355.
83
H. M. Brackenridge. Recollections of Persons and Places
in the West, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 68; Pittsburgh
Gazette, December 29, 1798.
CHAPTER IV
LIFE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY