When working in healthcare, or any professional field for that matter, it is important to consider what professional identity who would like to portray, how do you want others to perceive you, professionally. Professional identity is important to how you are perceived throughout your career. In healthcare professional identity can determine how employers, current and future, and patients perceive you as a professional. A tainted professional identity can easily hinder future career aspirations you may have. Personally when I combine me personal with profession identity it is seamless, in the way that who I identify with personally is the same as professionally. Professionally I want my identity to be that of a Respiratory Therapist that is trustworthy and knowledgeable. I want my college’s to be able to rely on me when needed as well as my patients to trust that I am going to take care of them to the best of my ability, no matter the day or time.
Personally my professional values surround quality of care for patients. My professional values as a Respiratory Therapist include; altruism, compassion, empathy, respect, autonomy, transparency, continuous improvement, and commitment to continued education. I feel anyone in the health care industry must at least possess the professional value of altruism. According to Oxford dictionary (2020) altruism is the fact of caring about the needs and happiness of other people and being willing to do things to help them, even if it brings no advantage to yourself. Healthcare workers, in my opinion, need to selflessly care for the well being of others. The professional value of autonomy defines that the patient, if capable, can make his or her own decisions. In my personal practice I have explained this principle to patients who do not want to undergo certain procedures. At times it is as simple as the patient not understanding why they need the procedure, other times the patient fully understands the procedure and does no understand why they ‘have too’ have the procedure. This is when I explain to the patient the importance of the procedure for their health; however, I make sure to explain to the patient that they have the right to decline any medical procedure that they do not want to undergo. In the elderly population I often see patients that do not speak up, ask questions, or decline procedures due to not being aware they have the right to speak up and make their own decisions. I always make sure my patients understand their right to autonomy, if they are not capable in making their own decisions than their decision maker also needs to know this. Compassion, empathy, and respect are self-explanatory and should be part of everyone in the health care field. Transparency is also an important value in my practice. I strive to maintain transparent communication with my patients, I do not withhold information or results from patients, it is their health and it is important that they fully understand all aspects, in my opinion. Personally commitment to improvement and continued education is important to me as healthcare and medicine is always evolving. I graduated as a Respiratory Therapist in 2016 and in the four years since medicine had continued to grow and change as new respiratory medications are on the market. It is important that I stay up to date with new and emerging medications and technologies as patients will turn to me, as their respiratory therapist, to education them on these new medications and technologies. Within the Canadian Health Care System, as a respiratory therapist in my career position I fit into the private home care section of the system. The Canadian Health Care System refers to this as a secondary service. The private respiratory home care company (Respiratory Home Care Solutions) I am currently employed by provides services, both funded and not funded by the government of Alberta provincial funding. My main focus is home oxygen and spirometry testing, both funded by the Alberta government. There is the odd case that is not funded for home oxygen by the province of Alberta, however, this occurs when patient test results do not indicate the need for home oxygen. In the case that test results do not indicate the need for home oxygen, if a doctor prescribes home oxygen, the patients has the choice to pay privately to purchase or rent oxygen equipment. Alberta Aids to Daily Living (AADL) policy R-12 to R-28 outlines the guidelines for home oxygen funding.
References:
Alberta Health (2015, July 1). Alberta Aids to Daily Living Respiratory Benefits Program
Policy & Procedures Manual.
College and Association of Respiratory Therapists of Alberta (2016-2021). Alberta Iteration
of the National Competency Framework. https://www.carta.ca/media/388134/ncf-
Government of Canada (2019, September 17). Canada's Health Care System.
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries (2020). Altruism.
Respiratory Home Care Solutions (2020). https://rhscanada.com
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