On professionalism as a pillar of clinical herbal practice…
One of my greatest sources of strength - that which provides me with the capacity to continue showing up in my work as a clinician, mentor, and colleague - is my morally-guided, internal sense of professionalism. But like every well-intentioned self-reflective herbalist, I have a duty to continually reevaluate my rationale and beliefs surrounding my core values - and ‘professionalism’ is most certainly one of these core values.
As we are exploring ‘professionalism’ this month in the Herbal Practice Connexion (HPX), I have been taking some time to dive beneath the shallows of my own constructs by seeking perspectives about professionalism from Western popular culture as well as other healthcare fields. However, before jumping into the ocean of opinions on professionalism, I first needed to get clear about my own. What are my beliefs surrounding what it means to ‘be professional’ or ‘act with professionalism’ as a clinical herbalist?
In my initial musings, professionalism came through as a code of ethics and conduct that I rely on to nurture and navigate relationships with my clients, mentees, and colleagues. I also described professionalism as a vessel within which I distill the essence of who I am and what I do as integral, safe, and therefore, trustworthy. Here is one example of such musing:
‘‘For me, as a clinical herbalist and mentor, professionalism plays a significant role in maintaining healthy and dyadic relationships with clients, mentees, and colleagues. These relationships are the foundation upon which I can build a sustainable business that celebrates and elevates the profession of clinical herbalism as a viable career and a safe, legitimate health & wellness care option.”
But I knew that if I really wanted to expand my worldview about what professionalism means as a clinical herbalist, I was going to have to look outside of myself. And so I did, and in doing so have gained some really critical insight into professionalism as a pillar of clinical herbal practice. However, my sojourning into the philosophical realm of professionalism did not land me with any clear answers - it’s not like a lightbulb went on and I now feel safe and clear to declare exactly what ‘professionalism’ means within the context of clinical herbalism. Indeed, I have way more questions and I hope you will too…
Defining PRofessionalism…
There are various and sundry English definitions of the term ‘professionalism’ that I feel align with my intuitive understanding of how I comport myself as a clinical herbalist. These definitions illustrate concepts such as reaching competency and standards of skill and knowledge, utilizing good judgment and sound decision-making practices, and demonstrating moral and ethical behaviors and conduct within the context of my work in the world.
However, in order to expand my worldview about the role of professionalism in clinical herbalism, I went for a long swim around the Western socio-cultural concept of 'professionalism' with a specific focus on discussions within American healthcare professions. I was amazed by how much I found published on the subject and indeed stumbled across perspectives that have really got me reflecting on professionalism in new, critically important ways.
These new, poignant reflections reach beyond my personal notions of professionalism as a sacred inner dialogue and moral compass. I have learned that from certain perspectives professionalism becomes less about the actions and acts of individuals and more about a profession, as a whole, committing to collective responsibilities. But most importantly, I have also come to see (and better yet articulate) professionalism as a belief system and social contract that has the capacity to both empower and oppress.
Professionalism as a belief system and social contract…
“If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Exploring the etymology of the word ‘professionalism’ in the English language, we are reminded that its root word is “profess” which means to speak out or to declare publicly. A profession is therefore a group of people collectively professing the shared standards and values that govern their work. These shared standards and values form a belief system of that group which then defines its professionalism.
I stumbled upon a journal article published in 2014 which also sought to define professionalism within the context of a belief system. This perspective would call upon herbalists to jointly declare (to the public or elsewhere) what should be expected regarding shared standards of competency, ethics, morals, and values – and to implement a system of trustworthy checks and balances that ensures that all herbalists live up to these promises.
But this is where it gets tricky for us herbalists especially as we consider the diversity of identities and traditions within herbalism even here in America. As a clinical herbalist of dominant culture descent and education, thrusting my Western herbalism ideals and standards of competency, ethics, morals, and values upon other cultures, traditions, and worldviews is deeply problematic. Even if Western ‘clinical herbalism’ itself could be considered a whole, easily definable entity or profession, there are many ways of being an herbalist or practicing herbalism within this tradition. What may seem to me as entirely unprofessional within Western clinical herbalism as I practice it, may lie within the bounds of perceived collective responsibilities, beliefs, values, and ethics of other Western herbalists.
So here are my questions…Whose measure of competency, ethics, morals, values, and beliefs are we meant to centralize from this diversity? How do we collectively declare what ‘professionalism’ is without colonizing other traditions? As herbalists, is it even possible to collectively profess anything without appropriating or homogenizing?
Another article I found on medical professionalism suggested a novel approach to exploring these questions. It suggested that the primary function of professionalism is to ensure that professionals are worthy of public trust. Being worthy of trust is arguably of the most profound importance to herbalists as our entire (yet varied) existence in dominant American culture is up against a lack of it. In this scenario, professionalism becomes a vector of trustworthiness and the paper upon which a social contract between the profession and society is written. In regard to the practice of medicine they noted:
“Professionalism is placing the best interests of patients at the center of everything you do. If we live up to that promise, and if the public and the individual patients can expect to be put in the center of our practice, only then are we professionals worthy of their trust.” (1)
In the herbalism version of this perspective, I believe we have more than just the public to hold ourselves accountable to. There are also the plants – our dearest and closest allies – they too are relying on our professionalism to honor them, to centralize them in our practice, and to hold ourselves accountable for our actions and behaviors surrounding their care and wellbeing. Indeed, this reverberates outward even further to the planet itself and the ecosystems that sustain us all.
Professionalism as a force of empowerment and oppression…
Type ‘what is professionalism’ into Google and AI comes back with a hoard of adages telling you to love your work, how the keys to success are in your hands, “its not the job you do but how you do the job” and blah, blah, blah. And whilst looking through the lens of capitalism many of these adages may be true, they also wreak of toxic standards thrust upon us by an ever-present and ever-demanding economic structure. This top down pressure of ‘being professional’ is arguably even more heavy and oppressive for those herbalists who are already under the thumb of dominant culture.
This additional downward pressure has certainly been identified in other healthcare fields. For example, in another fascinating article on the subject of medical professionalism as taught in medical school curriculum, researchers were able to identify mechanisms by which professionalism empowered or disempowered individuals or groups based on identities. They declared that even though professionalism has historically been viewed as an honorable code to define core values and behaviors of physicians, their research uncovered growing concerns that medical professionalism also serves to control people who do not align with the majority culture of the profession.
Narratives from participants in their research with identities underrepresented in medicine shared experiences of professionalism as a homogenizing, and therefore oppressive force. The mechanisms of oppression identified included conflating differences with unprofessionalism, the existence of double standards of professionalism, and the presence of institutional policies that regulated appearance or hindered advocacy. These mechanisms, in turn, had profound impacts on participants’ mental health.
For folks like me, a clinical practitioner of Western herbalism of dominant culture descent and privilege, we must be incredibly mindful about how ‘professionalism’ in herbalism can have the same deleterious oppressive influence as was described in this study. We must seek to identify where similar mechanisms of oppression exist amongst our individual projections and practices of professionalism ideals.
On the flipside, participants in this research also were able to describe how professionalism actually also serves as central means of advocating for marginalized groups. Additionally, participants shared how reconceiving professionalism to include their own identities and values served as a significant source of empowerment.
A closing notion…
Reconceiving professionalism on the level of the individual feels like an excellent notion to internalize and utilize. Instead of professionalism being some type of externally imposed standard to live up to, perhaps I can turn my internal dial of professionalism more toward that which I define for myself and apply to myself. Perhaps the phenomenon of professionalism in clinical herbalism asks me to consider what standards I can create and sustain in my clinical and business practices whereby my personal ideals of professionalism are achieved and maintained.
So my parting questions to you, dear colleague, are these: What does professionalism in clinical herbalism mean to you? How might you reconceive professionalism to include your own standards, identities, and values? I love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below.
Thanks for reading and for your ongoing support for my work in the world.
For the love of the plants,
~ Erika
