2009 Student Ethics Essay Award - 1st Place
The Importance of Collaboration and Character: Principle of
Ethics IV
By Megan Thurber
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
NSSLHA Chapter Advisor: Emily E. Tyson
Walking into the freshly painted physical therapy room, I
notice my client sitting near the windows. He appears taller,
straighter, more confident than last week. As I walk over to him,
I am greeted by the physical therapist: "Joe finally
received his new chair! Doesn't he look great?" I look
at Joe and smile, "Absolutely! You're much taller than I
remember, Joe!" The physical therapist quickly shows me how
to work the new chair and tells me that, for now, Joe can only
tolerate sitting in this chair for an hour at a time. She then
asks me if it would be possible to integrate general directions
and locatives into our speech-language therapy sessions. She
reports that this is an area in which Joe is having difficulty,
and feels it is unfortunately impeding his physical therapy
sessions. "I'll certainly see what I can do," I
tell her with a wink, "Are you ready to go, Joe?" As I
wheel Joe down to the speech therapy room, I think of ways to
integrate locative concepts into that day's activities.
An hour later, Joe and I return to the physical therapy room
so he can transfer back to his old wheelchair. I excitedly report
to the physical therapist that today was one of Joe's best
sessions yet. By improving his posture, the new wheelchair also
seemed to improve his attention, his speech and his overall
ability to participate in his therapy. I inform her that we began
working on directions and locatives, and will continue with those
goals in future sessions, but was hoping she would be able to
incorporate concrete yes/no questions and an emotion
communication board into her physical therapy sessions with him.
"Not a problem," she said, happily taking the board
from my hands.
In an ideal world, all exchanges among a team of professionals
would go this smoothly. Speech-language pathologists would be
able to quickly consult with physical therapists directly
following intervention sessions. Occupational therapists would
always have the availability and desire to co-treat their
patients with the speech-language pathologist. All members of the
rehabilitation team would eagerly incorporate others' ideas
into their therapies. But in many clinical settings, our world is
not ideal. Day-in and day-out we are reminded of the realities of
service delivery: productivity and progress. In order to remain
strong assets in the eyes of our employers, speech-language
pathologists must be productive and our clients must show
progress on their individual goals. We worry, naturally, that our
productivity and/or progress will be sacrificed if our time is
not completely devoted to our own agendas, to our own goals, to
our own profession. However, collaboration with our allied
professional colleagues is invaluable. It offers insight into
aspects of our clients' lives we may not otherwise consider,
aspects that may truly work to benefit our own agendas, our own
goals, our own profession.
It is important we realize the tremendous benefits that come
from collaborating with professionals outside of speech-language
pathology. To remind us of this, the ASHA Code of Ethics requires
speech-language pathologists to "maintain harmonious
interprofessional and intraprofessional relationships,"
(ASHA Code of Ethics, Principle IV). In order for these
relationships to be preserved, we must understand and respect the
expertise of our allied professionals. We do so with the
knowledge that our colleagues will reciprocate this respect onto
us.
However, in order for speech-language pathologists to be
trusted and respected by those outside of our field, we must
continue to prove that we are an honorable and professional
discipline. As speech-language pathologists, we must be truthful
and exhibit appropriate professional behavior at all times; we
must represent ourselves and our work honestly; we must honor our
colleagues by acknowledging their contributions to our projects;
we must embrace the many great individual differences that exist
among our clients, colleagues and students by not tolerating
discrimination of any kind (ASHA Code of Ethics, Principle IV,
Rules 2-8). Simply put, character counts. We must ensure that our
profession is comprised of respectable, trustworthy individuals.
Fortunately the qualities that led many of us down this career
path are the same ones that will work to establish integrity
within our field: empathy, responsibility, determination,
leadership, and optimism, to name a few. It is important that we
not only recognize these distinguishing traits, but work to
embrace them in our everyday professional interactions. Principle
IV of the ASHA Code of Ethics requires us to be cognizant of our
personal character in order to advance the integrity of our
field. We are obligated to hold ourselves accountable to these
professional standards.
In addition to holding ourselves accountable, we must also
demand such professional responsibility in our colleagues.
Supervisors must prohibit those "under their supervision
from engaging in any practice that violates the Code of
Ethics," (ASHA Code of Ethics, Principle IV, Rule A). In
doing so, they ensure that our Code of Ethics is held paramount.
Further, we have the responsibility to inform the Board of Ethics
when there is reason to believe that the Code of Ethics has been
violated (ASHA Code of Ethics, Principle IV, Rule I). By adhering
to these professional standards, we protect the integrity of
speech-language pathology. Not only does this bestow confidence
within ourselves, it also cultivates trust and respect from our
colleagues in the allied professions.
As new graduates about to trek down this exciting career path,
we must reflect on the hard work that brought our field to this
point of recognition and growth. We must honor our mentors, the
professionals that came down the road before us, making our
travels that much easier. We must also consider those who will be
following our footsteps in the years to come. It is our
responsibility to continue to improve our field by encouraging
collaboration within the allied professions, requiring
respectable character, and upholding above all else our governing
Code of Ethics.
Reference
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2003).
Code of Ethics. Available from
www.asha.org/policy.