Browsing by Subject "Values"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Conscience Sensitive Medical Education
    (2002) Gaffney, Margaret M.; Galvin, Matthew R.; Stilwell, Barbara M.
    Medicine is a moral enterprise, and young people who enter professional school are presumed to be morally astute, as well as intellectually capable. Thoughtful students quickly grasp the fact that what we can do in medicine usually outpaces the consensus of what we ought to do, and one of the earliest questions these students ask is how they should go about honoring their individual consciences in the face of patients, peers or teachers who profess divergent values, or request services that jar the young professional’s sense of ought-ness. Medical educators readily acknowledge the need, indeed the moral requirement, to teach ethics, but struggle to ascertain the most effective, efficient and compelling way to present the material and engage the moral reasoning of students who are already inundated with basic and advanced science studies (Self & Baldwin, 1994). Students appreciate hearing about case stories, but do not want much in the way of philosophical theory. Most students at our institution have backgrounds in biology or chemistry; few have taken any courses in literature, philosophy, religion, ethics or other humanities. The handful of lectures and small-group case-based discussions related to ethical dilemmas in medicine offered in the curriculum are helpful, but often fail to prepare the young physician adequately for a life in which moral questions daily will present themselves. We are piloting an approach to moral teaching in medicine based on an examination of conscience formation and functioning, and the understanding of the intersection of personal conscience with professional medical and ethical values. We believe that conscience theory and language may be a useful addition to the traditional approaches to dilemma resolution that involve principles, theories, and case based reasoning. In this paper we will explore traditional ethical resolution methods, give a brief history and overview of Conscience Theory, and then show through case example how using Conscience Theory may allow a richer examination of the most poignant and troubling dilemmas physicians face.
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    Designing from the Core: Facilitating Core Thinking for Sustainable Development in Design Education
    (Cumulus Association, 2022-10) Napier, Pamela; Lettis, Gwen; Herron School of Art
    How might graphic designers identify and clarify their personal values and identity so that they might develop a responsibility mindset in their design process? This has been a central question in the research of the authors Napier and Lettis, two design educators who have been collaborating across the world from the United States and Ireland, through Master’s thesis and Ph.D. work, from first-year graphic design students to senior visual communication design students, and from in-person to online teaching. Our research is driven by a deeply vested interest in personal or core values and how they relate to making sustainable or responsible design decisions. We believe that design students must be able to develop a personal awareness of their individual values and goals to not only benefit their design process and practice, but also to benefit sustainable development. “Value thinking” is a central mode of thinking encouraged in education for sustainable development, which “develops and strengthens the capacity of individuals, groups, communities, organizations and countries to make judgments and choices in favor of sustainable development” (UNECE, 2009, p. 15). Within our research, we acknowledge that value thinking also involves thinking of oneself, and the direct correlation between the “personal” and sustainability. We termed this personal value thinking or, as Lettis has termed it since, core thinking. Ann Thorpe (2007), an educator of sustainable design and author of The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability, states: Many of the issues confronting us in the landscape of sustainability are those that feel more personal than professional, for example, your connection to nature, your politics as a citizen, or your willingness to put your personal resources toward ecological sustainability. We have found that in the context of sustainability in graphic design education (GDE) and design education generally, many programs are exclusively available to postgraduate students. Additionally, while some undergraduate education does aim to foster the development of personal values, it is unclear which processes are used to help students clarify and integrate those values into their identity and practice. This paper will describe the processes, methods, and tools that Napier and Lettis have developed to facilitate core thinking for sustainable development in different courses, at varying levels of graphic and visual communication design education. It will discuss the theoretical background of value thinking and include a high-level look at the ongoing efforts of evolving materials aimed at supporting design educators to foster sustainability-minded design students. Additionally, this paper will discuss both students’ and educators’ reflections on this ongoing work. It is the hope of the authors that a more inclusive approach to fostering sustainability-minded students and graduates will impact the role that designers can play as responsible citizens.
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    Healthcare at the Crossroads: The Need to Shapean Organizational Culture of Humanistic Teaching and Practice
    (SpringerLink, 2018-07) Rider, Elizabeth A.; Gilligan, MaryAnn C.; Osterberg, Lars G.; Litzelman, Debra K.; Plews-Ogan, Margaret; Weil, Amy B.; Dunne, Dana W.; Hafler, Janet P.; May, Natalie B.; Derse, Arthur R.; Frankel, Richard M.; Branch, William T., Jr.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND: Changes in the organization of medical practice have impeded humanistic practice and resulted in widespread physician burnout and dissatisfaction. OBJECTIVE: To identify organizational factors that promote or inhibit humanistic practice of medicine by faculty physicians. DESIGN: From January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2016, faculty from eight US medical schools were asked to write reflectively on two open-ended questions regarding institutional-level motivators and impediments to humanistic practice and teaching within their organizations. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty eight of the 92 (74%) study participants who received the survey provided written responses. All subjects who were sent the survey had participated in a year-long small-group faculty development program to enhance humanistic practice and teaching. As humanistic leaders, subjects should have insights into motivating and inhibiting factors. APPROACH: Participants' responses were analyzed using the constant comparative method. KEY RESULTS: Motivators included an organizational culture that enhances humanism, which we judged to be the overarching theme. Related themes included leadership supportive of humanistic practice, responsibility to role model humanism, organized activities that promote humanism, and practice structures that facilitate humanism. Impediments included top down organizational culture that inhibits humanism, along with related themes of non-supportive leadership, time and bureaucratic pressures, and non-facilitative practice structures. CONCLUSIONS: While healthcare has evolved rapidly, efforts to counteract the negative effects of changes in organizational and practice environments have largely focused on cultivating humanistic attributes in individuals. Our findings suggest that change at the organizational level is at least equally important. Physicians in our study described the characteristics of an organizational culture that supports and embraces humanism. We offer suggestions for organizational change that keep humanistic and compassionate patient care as its central focus.
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    Personal value thinking in graphic communication design education: The introduction of a clarification tool for students
    (University of Plymouth, 2020) Lettis, Gwen; Napier, Pamela; de Eyto, Adam; McMahon, Muireann
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    The professionalization of medical students : a longitudinal analysis of professional identity formation and professionalism perceptions in second and third year medical students
    (2017-12) Byram, Jessica Nichole; Scheurich, James J.; Brokaw, James J.; Hoffman, Leslie A.; Seifert, Mark F.; Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista
    Background: Recent literature on professional identity formation (PIF) conceptualizes the developmental process into stage theories that remove critical context. This study employed a longitudinal approach to PIF that explored the processes through which professional identity is formed in second (MS2) and third (MS3) year medical students and how their perceptions of professionalism transformed and influenced their PIF. Methods: Nine medical students (n=9) from Indiana University School of Medicine completed this study spanning MS2 and MS3. Participants completed three semi-structured interviews and submitted 10 audio diaries at two-month intervals between interviews. Participants also completed the Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) at the beginning of MS2 (PAT1) and end of MS3 (PAT2). Interviews and audio diaries were analyzed using the constant comparative approach and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to determine significant differences between mean domain scores of PAT1 and PAT2. Results: This study found several processes of PIF within five themes: Exploring Self in Medicine, Connecting to Image of Medicine, Embodying Role, Internalizing Values, and Exploring Specialty Choice. Processes of participating in patient care and selecting a specialty have the most profound impact on PIF and resulted in medical students feeling like members of the medical community. Analyses revealed participants’ perceptions of professionalism became more complex with clinical experiences and their perceptions of their ability to enact those behaviors transformed across the study period. Furthermore, the participants’ perceptions of professionalism set the foundation for the values they desired to demonstrate as part of their professional identities. Conclusions: This study presents a cohesive picture of how PIF occurs across MS2 and MS3 and how professionalism influences this important developmental process. These results indicate PIF is best cultivated within a medical curriculum where students are able to utilize processes to foster its development. Since professionalism serves as an important foundation to professional identity and a comprehensive understanding is needed for medical students to appreciate a physician’s role in society, the curriculum must be structured in a way to promote a complex, reflective understanding of professionalism that is based on values, actions, and who one wants to be as a physician.
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    Rachel and the 7 Bridges of Conscience-berg
    (2002) Galvin, Matthew R.; Gaffney, Margaret M.; Stilwell, Barbara M.
    This second storybook is a fantasy sequel to The Conscience Celebration. Many real-life contributors to the study of moral development are honored for their labors in fictitious Conscience-Berg. With the help of an Imp, Rachel, the fictitious protagonist, finds something else: how each domain of conscience is linked with a bedrock value and how all the domains and bedrock values are inextricably connected.
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    Understanding Values in a Large Health Care Organization through Work-Life Narratives of High-Performing Employees
    (Rambam Health Care Campus, 2011-10-31) Karnieli-Miller, Orit; Taylor, Amanda C.; Inui, Thomas S.; Ivy, Steven S.; Frankel, Richard M.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    OBJECTIVE: To understand high-performing frontline employees' values as reflected in their narratives of day-to-day interactions in a large health care organization. METHODS: A total of 150 employees representing various roles within the organization were interviewed and asked to share work-life narratives (WLNs) about value-affirming situations (i.e. situations in which they believed their actions to be fully aligned with their values) and value-challenging situations (i.e. when their actions or the actions of others were not consistent with their values), using methods based on appreciative inquiry. RESULTS: The analysis revealed 10 broad values. Most of the value-affirming WLNs were about the story-teller and team providing care for the patient/family. Half of the value-challenging WLNs were about the story-teller or a patient and barriers created by the organization, supervisor, or physician. Almost half of these focused on "treating others with disrespect/respect". Only 15% of the value-challenging WLNs contained a resolution reached by the participants, often leaving them describing unresolved and frequently negative feelings. CONCLUSIONS: Appreciative inquiry and thematic analysis methods were found to be an effective tool for understanding the important and sometimes competing role personal and institutional values play in day-to-day work. There is remarkable potential in using WLNs as a way to surface and reinforce shared values and, perhaps more importantly, respectfully to identify and discuss conflicting personal and professional values.