Introduction
According to the National Council on Family Relations, “Professional Ethics and Practice is an understanding of the character and quality of human social conduct, and the ability to critically examine ethical questions and issues as they relate to professional practice.”
Ethics includes your own personal values and the social consequences of the actions of value choices. As a professional, ethics is what drives you make the decisions that you do and also for the actions and attitudes you show to others. Not only is professional ethics deciding between what is right and wrong, but it is being able to identify actions within the workplace.
Coursework
- Professional Seminar in Family Life Education– This class helped me understand the true definition of ethics. I learned about the different ethical principles and practiced making ethical decisions.
- Family Violence – This class taught me about the different types of violence within the family system. I learned how situations should be handled and how to do so in the right way. This class brought in ethics because it described one’s personal values and how that is handled.
- Families and Diversities – Families and Diversities helped me to understand families in multiple contexts who all have different values. I learned about many different cultures and oppression that can help to understand the reasoning behind the actions made based on personal and family values.
Experience
- Life Choice Ministries – My internship taught me how ethics work within an organization. I learned and observed on a daily basis what it meant to have personal and professional ethics through the work that I did and through the work that others did within the organization.
- San Marcos Mission Trip– I got the chance to spend a week in San Marcos, Texas working on homes of people who were less fortunate. This experience enhanced my own personal values and opened my eyes up to new situations.
- See above picture
- LEOS – I had the opportunity to serve on the board as both the president and the treasurer for our LEOS club in high school. This experience taught me many lessons about the values of a community and of our LEOS club.
Reflection
Our own personal ethics are what guide us to live our lives the way that we do. I was blessed to grow up in a family where positive values were instilled in me. I didn’t know it then, but as a young child I was being taught what ethics were and was practicing them on a daily basis. As a professional in the workplace it is very important to have guidelines set for ethics so that everything can run as smoothly as possible. I find it very important for everyone to be practicing the same principles of ethics as professionals. I have observed this during my internship at Life Choice Ministries and by being involved with other organizations. Confidentiality is just one of the many ethical practices that I practiced on a daily basis. It was and still is my job as a professional following the ethic codes to maintain the privacy and protect the confidentiality of my clients, those who I work with, and others within my career.
In my Pre-Professional Seminar class, we learned about ethical principles and how they connected to a career as a Family Life Educator. Ethical principles serve as a foundation for when problems occur. They help to guide solutions in challenging situations that may occur within a workplace or even within personal situations. As a Certified Family Life Educator, the guidelines of ethics are going to guide my helping hands and the thought processes that go on while helping others.
As like any profession, the Birth Doula’s from “Doulas of North America” have their code of ethics that they follow for their line of work. As a doula from DONA, I will be practicing those ethics with integrity by clearly defining my ethical responsibilities to clients, colleagues, the profession and society. As a doula I will not only have to be practicing my own ethics for myself and my career, but observing and learning how my clients respond to my ethics and what ethics they have set for themselves. The very first rule of conduct for DONA’s Code of Ethics is propriety. As a birth doula it is very important to maintain high standards of personal conduct both as the role of the doula and as an individual. As a doula I plan on practicing professional ethics both in my personal life and as a professional.
ERIKA JUST 