Maintaining Professional Standards in Disasters and Conflicts

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Original Editors - Naomi O'Reilly

Top Contributors - Naomi O'Reilly, Kim Jackson, Jess Bell, Aminat Abolade, Rishika Babburu and Lilian Ashraf      

Introduction

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Professional Standards

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Scope of Practice

Scope of practice pertains to the full spectrum of roles, functions, responsibilities, activities and decision-making capacity that individuals within their specific rehabilitation profession are educated, competent and authorised to perform. While this can be broad for each profession, each individual will need to consider their own individual scope of practice, which will be unique to each individual and is influenced by your career, experience and development. Working in humanitarian settings such as disaster and conflicts can be very challenging with rehabilitation professionals often pushed towards the boundaries of their individual scope of practice. Despite these challenges it is vital that all rehabilitation professionals have a responsibility to work within their own individual scope of practice at all times, and should only practice within areas where they have the skills and competency to safely work. Some additional tasks advanced or extended scope practitioners are involved in following further specialised training may be outside of what would normally be considered within scope of practice for a particular profession. Rehabilitation professionals who have an extended scope of practice or advanced practice, have an obligation to only work within the scope of practice for your profession as defined by the regulatory body within the country you are working in if there is one present, and only participate in their advanced practice if allowed within the setting in which you are working and where your insurance covers you. Rehabilitation professionals may have a role to play in working with national staff to support them in developing further skills and competencies, within the scope of practice as defined in the country in which they are working.

Ethical Practice

Ethics in health care and rehabilitation can be defined as the moral code of conduct that defines the relationship between the rehabilitation professional and their patient, and the therapist and other healthcare professionals based on mutual respect and trust. Ethical issues emerging in disasters have been identified as tensions between the respect for local customs and values imposed by external responders; different understandings of health, illness and diseases; external factors that hinder to providing adequate care such as scarce resources; questions of a “moral identity” for health workers; and trust and distrust between humanitarian workforce and local communities. Professionals’ roles and interactions are influenced by historical, political, social and commercial structures, aid agency policies and agendas that can contribute to ethically challenging situations. Ethical issues can also arise on the level of the patient-healthcare professional relationship.

You can read more about Ethics in Disasters and Conflicts.

References  

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