Blogging for learning ethical practice

Abstract

In considering the UK’s Public Health Competency Framework (Skills for Health), specifically adjunct Competency 10 ‘Ethical Management of Self’, it could be argued that for those training our Public Health Workforce they have to address challenging educational needs. As the Wanless reports of 2002 & 2004 highlight, we must produce PH practitioners that are able to effectively deliver actionable programmes within ethically complex scenarios of people’s daily lives. The problem is that Public Health represents a diverse workforce, devoid of a mandatory, universally accepted Code of Conduct or an agreed professional identity. With seven years experience of leading a Health Promotion BSc pathway and three years as a PCT Non-Executive Director, leading R&D/Public Health, it has come to my attention that part of a solution maybe extending Ethics into the realm of teaching ethical dispositions & transferable skills to our diverse PH workforce. To develop ethical dispositions, skills and flexible professional identities, I teach and am researching the use of Critical Thinking Skills in conjunction with established Medical Ethical Curricula. This poster outlines how Critical Thinking Skills can be taught alongside traditional Medical Ethics and how CT can link to the development of the UK Public Health Workforce today.