Looking Within: Intentions of Practice for Person-Centered Care

William B. Ventres

doi:10.1370/afm.2037

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Author response: Intentions of Practice
William Ventres

Published on: 17 March 2017
Appreciating Intentions and Internal Locus of Control
David C. Pole

Published on: 16 March 2017

Published on: (17 March 2017)

Author response: Intentions of Practice
William Ventres, Family Physician
I very much appreciate Dr. Pole's kind comments in regards to Intentions of Practice for Person-Centered Care.
I am personally unfamiliar with the practice that Dr. Pole recommends, that of Critical Reflection. Maybe I have been using some form of CR without formally being aware of it! I look forward to learning more about the concept.
At various times in my own professional life, I have had the privil...
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I very much appreciate Dr. Pole's kind comments in regards to Intentions of Practice for Person-Centered Care.
I am personally unfamiliar with the practice that Dr. Pole recommends, that of Critical Reflection. Maybe I have been using some form of CR without formally being aware of it! I look forward to learning more about the concept.
At various times in my own professional life, I have had the privilege of being surrounded by people who nurture my own reflective thinking (whether "critical" or not). They have been a blessing for me, and I appreciate their help very much.
I encourage clinicians and scholars who are interested in deeply examining the meaning of their work to use some framework, as Dr. Pole suggests, to help focus their thinking. I also encourage them to find a compassionate and supportive "we" to which they can belong. Agreement in such a group not need to be the goal, as new ideas often emerge from differences in perspective. Respect, however, is mandatory for such shared exploration to occur.
With best intentions...
Competing interests: None declared
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Competing Interests: None declared.
Published on: (16 March 2017)

Appreciating Intentions and Internal Locus of Control
David C. Pole, Program Director
Thank you for your reflection on Looking Within V15(2) March/April 2017. 35 years in health promotion and integrating medical management with health behaviors, stress/mental health issues, and social determinants of health have taught me that as health care professionals we need and incredibly strong moral compass and statements of what we believe (our intentions) cannot be left to chance or remain vague. The opportunity...
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Thank you for your reflection on Looking Within V15(2) March/April 2017. 35 years in health promotion and integrating medical management with health behaviors, stress/mental health issues, and social determinants of health have taught me that as health care professionals we need and incredibly strong moral compass and statements of what we believe (our intentions) cannot be left to chance or remain vague. The opportunity to work in an Academic Health Center for the last 12 years has also brought a renewed appreciation of the balance of art and science that is medical education and practice. An under-utilized tool in medical education, that I have a opportunity to regularly practice and mentor with students, is critical reflection. CR is significantly different than a general reflection, emotion, or journal writing. Critical reflection requires a critical analysis of an applied learning experience (working with patients or communities) against some framework, it this case you have beautifully express this framework in terms of your "intentions". The other essential quality of critical reflection is that it enables us to process and see gaps in our overall skill set to best respond to the situation and encourages focused areas for future growth and professional formation. As you mentioned, this process not only reinforces an internal locus of control - an essential skill set to strengthen in times of radical change in the health care system - it also represents a fundamental belief that if I grow and develop myself, my relationships and environment will change in a positive direction, enabling me to be at my best with the person in front of me, a patient, a student, or a colleague.
Thank you for sharing your reflection.
David Pole, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Saint Louis University
Competing interests: None declared
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Competing Interests: None declared.