Megan Narveson

HONRS 375

Professional Standards Critique

November 6, 2022

Professional Standards Critique

My family played a crucial role when it came to my decision of pursuing a degree in

exercise science. I look up to my parents and other adults in my life because of their successes in

the workplace and overall joy they experience when helping others. The three people that

impacted my decisions regarding my education the most were my mom, dad, and uncle. My

mom is an emergency room nurse and as a young girl I often dreamt of following in her

footsteps. I admired her job because of its importance to people everywhere. When interviewing

her I asked about many different aspects of her job that I outlined in my interview notes, but

most importantly we discussed the standards and ethics of her workplace. She described how the

hospital has very high standards because of the intensity and importance of tasks that they must

manage. Furthermore, there are many policies and procedures that they must follow to maintain a

certain standard of care. There are several mottos that each health care worker must remember

including “head and heart together” which reiterates their belief that outstanding healthcare

happens when knowledge of medicine and compassion merge.

My dad is an occupational therapist, and to be honest I never had any interest in his job

until I got into high school. During these four years I realized my passion for helping others and

decided that a career in health care may be a good fit for me. I liked the idea of making an impact

on people’s daily living by giving them the resources necessary to do simple tasks without pain.

My dad described the ethics and professional standards at his workplace as rigorous. Because
this career is within my current field of study, my disciplinary standards will be similar to his. He

stated that every two years he must complete twenty-four hours of continuing education to

maintain his occupational therapy license. There are also certain rules and regulations that must

be followed such as HIPPA and billing practices in order to follow certain occupational therapy

and iSpine clinic guidelines. These regulations will likely be implemented at my future

workplace as well, whether I end up deciding on a career in occupational or physical therapy.

Finally, I interviewed my uncle who is a high school cross country and track coach at a

high school in Cottage Grove. Ever since I started running competitively, I have thought about

becoming a coach, and decided to become more involved in this dream by pursuing a minor in

athletic coaching. My uncle said the athletic director holds the coaches accountable by having

meetings and book studies to maintain an organized and educated staff. The coaches always get

feedback from these meetings, detailing what they could change to be more effective and

improve their leadership skills.

Overall, there were many similarities and differences between the professional standards

and ethics in the variety of workplaces I learned about. For example, in the healthcare settings

employees must follow HIPPA and other specific practices to maintain expected privacy

standards. Furthermore, because of the intensity and emergent nature of these careers, they are

held to very high expectations regarding their training and knowledge of the job. Some

differences appeared between these two healthcare professions and the coaching perspective.

Because of the lesser intensity present in the coaching industry, their training is much less

rigorous. On the other hand, coaches must have knowledge that extends past the simple training

aspects of their sport. They must also be educated on the signs of certain injuries and how to

implement prevention training.