● Are there any boundaries issues with my clients? ● Are there other work issues that I have not addressed? ● How are my relationships with colleagues and administration? ● How are my relationships with friends and family? ● Can I identify symptoms of stress, fatigue, burnout, anxiety or depression? ● Do I need to seek help for any of the issues above? ● What five successes did I have this week? ● What needs to be improved from my practice this week? ● Do I take work stress home and is it affecting my family life? ● What hobbies or recreational activities do I do? How often do I do things just for me? ● Am I sleeping enough? ● How are my eating habits? ● Do I exercise enough? ● Do I have any medical conditions that I need to address? Do they impact my work? and HIPAA rules. It may be advisable to use an email provider to send out newsletters or information to the entire client base. Maintain a separate cell phone number for the business if possible that contains a professional greeting and message. Do not answer the phone in a public place that will allow others to hear the conversation or any identifying information that would constitute a confidentiality and HIPAA rule violation. It is also important to promote a professional image by conducting phone conversations in a quiet, private area, free of noise and distractions so that both parties can easily hear and communicate effectively. When writing a blog to share information, be sure to keep the content professional, error free, and devoid of any identifying client information to insure privacy and confidentiality. Blogs should also be free of advertising that will distract from the topic and may include content that is counter to the practitioner’s professional image. Finally, when sending faxes that contain client information, always use a cover letter, be sure the fax number is correct and that it will be received by the appropriate staff to maintain confidentiality. Any massage or bodywork professional website, networking site or social media page should review their code of ethics, any state law and HIPAA rule that regulates technology within and outside the state boundaries of the professional license or certification. In recent years, many systems have been compromised, hacked or cracked resulting in lost or stolen personal, medical and financial information. The practitioner can never be completely confident that they can protect the privacy rights of clients when using technology for communication. Practitioners must follow numerous safeguards and be extremely vigilant when using technology in their practice. conduct, dilemmas will often occur in subtly rather than resulting from gross negligence or malpractice such as inappropriate sexual conduct with clients. From the beginning, the practitioner must take the time to clearly establish their professional role and boundaries and maintain this level of standards-based conduct with each client interaction. They must be firm in communicating that they will not provide services that are illegal or unethical despite the requests of the client. This includes not using massage or bodywork modalities that are experimental, outside the scope of practice or the practitioner’s competence. Additionally, the practitioner must clarify the role of the client in truthfully disclosing medical information, communicating preferences, actively participating in their care decisions, maintaining boundaries and appropriate client conduct, following practice
awareness and self-care will make it easier to handle professional challenges to deliver effective care to clients. Self–assessment should be an ongoing process that requires the therapist to review their strengths and skills as well as areas for in their practice that present challenges. It requires the therapist to access their effectiveness with clients and reflect on what needs to be improved. The following questions should be part of the self assessment process, which should be tailored to meet the individual’s needs: ● What are my strengths? ● What do I need to improve? ● Which clients do I feel I am most effective with? ● Which clients present the most challenge? ● Are there areas where I could benefit from additional training to make my practice more effective? ● Which parts of my practice elicit stress? ● Do I have any suggestions to make the practice better for staff or clients and am I able to discuss them with others? Internet and social media Ethical violations in the areas of confidentiality and boundary issues often occur because of inadvertent mistakes using electronic media for information storage or transmission. Websites can be an effective marketing tool to reach potential clients and they can access information on the anywhere and at any time. Social networking sites are effective in connecting with others, providing updates and advertising business topics. It is important to consider personal and professional boundaries when developing a profile that should be professional and representative of the ethical standards of your practice. The social media profile is the first impression clients will have of the practice and it may have a profound impact and set the tone of future relationships with clients. If boundaries are not maintained, the practitioner may disclose aspects of their personal life that cannot be reversed. The practitioner must also decide how to handle requests from clients to be “friends” on social media, which may open the door to boundary crossings if they do not keep their personal and business networking separate. Using advanced privacy settings on personal profiles is advised. Any representation, text or visual, must be carefully considered because it not only reflects on the practitioner but the profession as a whole. Never post any comments or photos of clients on any pages that can be viewed by others which would be a violation of confidentiality ethics standards. This would include scheduling or confirming appointments, which should only be done through private messages on a secure site. When using email to communicate with client, always follow business email etiquette, be sure the text is free of grammar and spelling errors, and reflects a professional, conservative image. Never send out group emails that will disclose the addresses of all clients to each other, as this is a breach of confidentiality Investigating and ethical dilemmas The term ethics includes the study of moral decision-making (Dail, 2012). Ethical dilemmas are situations that violate the code of ethics and conduct standards of a profession. Ethical dilemmas also involve practitioner and client values, beliefs, experiences, emotions and level of trust and communication skills. The professional massage and body work professional must be cognizant of areas of practice that may lead to ethical dilemmas as well as concepts of power, professional responsibilities, effective communication, trust building, client autonomy and role in their care as a foundation to maintaining ethical practice. The competent and experienced practitioner will also be able to identify warning signs that issues are developing and address them with clients before they evolve into the level of an ethical dilemma. In a practice that is committed to ethical standards and
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Book Code: MTX1323
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