How realistic is it to expect health care workers to model mental, physical, and spiritual health? If Americans tend to be overweight, underactive workaholics who experience burnout, why should health care workers be any different?
Healthcare workers are professionals within the medical field who are charged with the responsibility of providing precautionary, promotional, therapeutic or rehabilitative healthcare to humanity (Hasselhorn & Lagerström, 1999). Remarkably, there is a lot of controversy about the expectations that society has on individuals working in this field. In most societies, healthcare workers are usually expected to be a proper representation of what is deemed as good health. Consequently, they are expected to model mental, divine and physical health (Makely, 1998).
According to me, I think it is imperative for healthcare workers to be role models in their respective societies. As much as these workers are exposed to the same environment as the rest of the population, they have an additional role to play in society. Consequently, they are looked upon by other members of the society as teachers and providers of instructions pertaining living a healthy life. For easier applicability of their advices, I think it is more practical for people to be influenced with a reality check. If health workers are to practice a contradiction of what they advocate for, it may be difficult to convince the rest of the population that their advices are sound and applicable. Nevertheless, I do not think that modeling proper healthcare should be deemed mandatory on the part of the healthcare workers. This is because different people uphold dissimilar values, and the same applies to health workers. Consequently, these workers should be advised on the importance of modeling proper health practices as well as the influence that comes with that. The choice to model these practices according me however, should be left to individual health care workers without any criticisms.
References
Hasselhorn, H.-M., Toomingas, A., & Lagerström, M. (1999). Occupational health for health
care workers: A practical guide. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Makely, S. (1998). Multiskilled health care workers: Issues and approaches to cross-training ; how to combine skills, design training programs, utilize staff, overcome obstacles, and make multiskilling work for you. Bloomington, IN: Pine Ridge Publications.
