the all girl army forums: How would you feel about this...?

This is where "unconditional positive regard" enters a gray area. (Yeah, you'd think that one would be a gimme at first glance, hu?)

I do hold strongly to the belief that all people have the right to life and health, regardless of their status. Those things often come packaged in health care professionals, though, who are PEOPLE themselves. Even if a principle is absolute, you can't take the humanity out of the question; it doesn't sit too well with me that HCPs are often expected to deliver their services robotically, completely cutting their own emotions out of the situation--or being blocked from really being open about those feelings when amongst peers, as seems to be the case in your class.

It's completely valid that you'd have negative feelings about not knowing the identity of your patients when it applies to you in such a personal way. Strangely, I seem to notice all sorts of ethics groups affectionately talking about how to deal when you're put in a position where your client may be someone you feel too much affection for--but when it comes to negative feelings, there is a lot of hush hush, and you're above it, you're a nurse/doctor/whatever.

While I get the approach of nurturing positive emotions, it also seems kind of silly to go too far the other way and completely fail to acknowledge the validity of those other feelings as well. For example, there are many rules about not working on family members or loved ones--but if someone comes in who has committed some sort of crime you were the victim of, and you find that it interferes with your ability to treat them effectively, then you're suddenly the brunt of so much censure and may even risk your job.

While I think that ultimately, those codes have to be obeyed and are there for a reason, I also am of the opinion that it's a GOOD THING to "go there" in terms of the very natural, human feelings we might have about some of this, and I DON'T think it's a good idea to bind yourself in principle and never confront yourself.

On a personal note, when I first started massage therapy school, I was very adamant that I would turn away homophobic clients. Now, I feel as though it would be healing to work with that population. It's kind of hard to explain the emotional process behind that. I guess it kind of feels a little like a "one up", though that's a little too mean-spirited. The idea is just, you WOULD do or HAVE done something cruel to "me", but now instead you are taking this healing from me, and because of me, your pain is going away and you feel better. I don't believe in karma in a practical sense, but something about it feels palpably karmatic. It feels like I'm healing some weird cosmic bruise.

Of course, that's on a different ship entirely than the one you're bringing up here, but it's on the same ocean, so I thought I'd share.

On a closing note, you're rarely going to be put in a truly DANGEROUS situation where prison is concerned; if you're seeing a patient who is known to have violent tendencies and is behind bars because of it, you'll have other people accompanying you or standing guard. The behavior is known already and accounted for, you know?

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~Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.