Values Clarification Assessment, Essay Example

Introduction

Values clarification is essential in building successful relationships. According to the living values analysis, values are powerful determinants of personal accomplishments. More importantly, values are relative to a person’s culture and an understanding of how this affects outcomes is very significant to nursing and the health care profession. As such, it becomes mandatory that daily I re-evaluate my personal values and examine how they align with those of my pateints/clients and the organization I represent.

Personal values

My personal values emerge mainly from family interactions and reflect features of my culture. For example, being raised Christian is a personal value. As it pertains to this religious culture this value entails attending church on Sundays for worship, which I have grown to love. Worship is perceived to be a sacred undertaking while God and minsters officiating in the service symbols of entering into a holy presence. Another value, which I have inculcated, through family culture and cherished from a child, is respect for the elderly for people who are much older in age than I am.

Now that I am grown, it is obvious that younger people have very little value for the elderly. Recently on the news it was reported that a high school student pushed a 65 year old teacher to the ground in front of the class. Apart from being his teacher for whom he had no respected that could have been his grandparent. Where is the value for person older that my age today. However, I hold this value sacred because it reminds me how to interact with the elderly. In the African culture an older persons represent faculties of wisdom irrespective of how he/she may detoriate due to illness and the aging process. For me they have an intuition of knowing which younger people may take some time to develop. This ought to be respected.

In my duties as a nurse I feel humbled when opportunities occur for me to provide the elderly with care. More importantly when considering that long term care for the elderly is so inaccessible, I am deeply grieved. My values regarding care for the elderly relates having paid taxes ought, they should be respected enough to access quality health care in their senior years. Just like younger people if their insurances and Medicare/Medicaid do not cover certain services they are denied health care under this managed care system(Kongstvedt, 2001).

As such, my struggle with functioning within my organization continues with regards to care of the elderly. Due to lack of respect even within their own family structure many of them arrive at assisted living facilities, hospital and eventually nursing home facilities seeking recognition. Here is where I see the power of my personal values becoming obvious as I book these pateints and interact with them during their care. Many of them arrive alone without relatives and are often just assigned a case worker. Immediately, empathy pores out and I just have to hold back the tears as I see them try finding themselves through ill health (Posner, 2014).

More importantly, when I reflect onmy personal values as it relates to selection of a place to work it is clear if there are elderly employees in my work environments I would expect them to be respected and valued for their experience and not ostracized due to their age. If I have to work in a health care facility the administration must value the elderly and function from a degree of moral conscience predicting right behavior for these vulnerable people in the society.

From my observation in the same way children are neglected and abused elder people are by children and the society at large. Elder care is a huge business in America, The huge value assessment question is, are the elderly receiving the care they deserve? Therefore this would be a criterion for selecting an institution in which I can function effectively based on my personal value system.

Analysis of decision making in my work environment

Jerry Tilley(2011) related that decision making is an integral process to effective organization management because it reflects ideals/ideas of its members. The author also pointed out that often we focus on making the right decisions and not making decisions in the right way (Tilley, 2014). In my organization often I am called to make decisions since I happen to be in management. The most difficult one are those concerning elderly patients. These really conflict with my values of how they ought to be treated.

Some of them do not understand the coverage they receive when certain Medicare advantage plans are issued. It is only when admitted to a health care institution they realize that certain services are denied due to their type of plan. My organization take stem measures towards denying services if pateints cannot pateints/ clients cannot pay through adequate. While Medicaid may respond to some charges many pre conditions are denied in the elderly. This is very conflicting in relation to my values. Values when considered from the premise of virtue are embedded in one’s character. Therefore, I have a difficulty resolving this elder care issue.

Conclusion

These implications create more empathy for the elderly in my environment at work; family settings and church community. Often I consider two aspects of elder care my parents even though they are not yet 65 years old and me when I get to that stage in my life.

References

Kongstvedt, P. (2001). The Managed Health Care Handbook (4th ed) Aspen Publishers, Inc.

Posner, R. (2014).The Power of Personal Values. Retrieved on June 19^th, 2014 from C:\Users\Tonica\Downloads\The Power of Personal Values.html

Tilley, J. (2011). Decision Making in Organizations. Retrieved on July 19^th, 2014 from http://www.jltalley.com/presentations/Decision%20Making.pdf