Reflection Hours: #4 -- RELAX, RELATE, RELEASE!!!

Today we talked about the different community health projects that our peers our involved in: the Miami Children's Museum, YMCA (interesting story about a volunteer football coach being too "touchy" with the abs of overweight kids), and the benefits of health fairs. We had finished our Peds rotation the week prior, and we're all feeling the stress of taking an exam (almost) every week until the end of this semester. So, our instructor asked us to stand up from our chairs, turn to the person in front of us, and massage their shoulders! When we were done, everyone felt a bit awkward, but more open to communicating. The theme of the day, we must remember to talk care of ourselves too, otherwise we are no help to the community or to our patients.

This leads me to today's vocabulary word: Ethics. Ethics can be defined as the values, practices, standards, and code of principles. Ethics guide the distinction between right and wrong based on the moral consequences of actions. As health care professionals, we must clarify our own values when taking care of patients whose beliefs are different from ours. In the case of the volunteer football coach, he may believe it is appropriate to touch the children's stomachs after they've exercised. However, these children had different beliefs about what is appropriate vs. inappropriate touch, and he was removed from the coaching position.

We will be faced with tough, ethical dilemmas in the community as well as the hospital (access to health care, child/sexual abuse, abortions, etc.). That's why we need to look at ourselves introspectively before we can help our patients.

...And it doesn't hurt to treat ourselves first to shoulder masage or two.