Page 18 - OPTA September 2018

Ethics Committee Report Lisa Kohler, PT – Chair
I am pleased to say that we have added two additional OPTA members to serve on the Ethics Committee in addition to Jill Dubbs and Truly Moore; please welcome Dawn Bookshar and Lexi Lairson! The committee always consists of an odd number of members in case we need to vote on issues related to an OPTA member that may have disciplinary action from the OTPTAT board . We will commence monthly conference calls to bring ethical dilemmas through OPTA social media to increase awareness. My hope is that we find a fun way to engage our members .
We have presented two years at the OPTA Annual Conference. The first year was titled “What Do I Do? Your Code of Ethics” and was an excellent overview of ethical principles . The second
year was titled “As the World Gets Smaller, Do Ethical Dilemmas Get Bigger?” with the focus of technology causing ethical dilemmas, specifically telehealth, the electronic medical record and social media. During our first call in August,
we will begin planning ideas for next year’s conference and we may seek your input on the topic through social media!
I have had a couple of members reach out by email to pose an ethical question . I would like to review with everyone a method that was discussed in our first presentation at annual conference . It is called the Realm-Individual Process-Situation (RIPS) Model . If you are interested in reading the entire article from the APTA, you can access it at http://www .apta .org/ uploadedFiles/APTAorg/Practice_and_Patient_ Care/Ethics/Tools/RIPS_DecisionMaking .pdf .
Nominating Committee Report Kim Doolittle-Koran, PT, DPT, OCS – Chair
As your Nominating Committee Chair, I look forward to working with committee members
to help identify and develop leaders within our organization . I intend to help new professionals begin their journey of leadership and encourage the seasoned therapists to get more involved . Additionally, I hope to maintain positive engagement of the current OPTA leaders . The OPTA offers members the unique ability to enhance and progress our profession, as well as the care of patients and clients . I am truly thrilled to work with so many extraordinary men and women in our organization .
THIS MODEL CONSISTS OF FOUR STEPS AS FOLLOWS:
1. Identify and determine the ethical dilemma – gather the facts/information based on the realm (who does it impact), individual process (use of code of ethics to determine morality effected) and situation (the dilemma .)
2. Reflect on the information gathered in step one.
3. Make a decision on the right course of action .
4. Put the decision in action then evaluate and change action as needed .
Obviously, the process seems simple to follow but ethical dilemmas are not usually easy to solve . All of us on the Ethics Committee has had ethical dilemmas to overcome and would love to assist anyone that reaches out to us .
For more information, please contact Lisa at:
lkohler@cinci.rr.com
It is time to begin thinking about the next election cycle . Open positions for 2019 include: Director I, four Delegates, an Alternate Delegate, and PTA Caucus
Rep. If you feel that you have qualities that would fit
any of these roles I encourage you to get involved! Alternatively, consider nominating a dedicated colleague that might not know how to get more involved . For more information visit the “Elections” page on the OPTA website where you will find the timeline for the election process and the Recommendation for Office form. Please feel free to reach out to myself or your district nominating coordinator if you have any questions .
For more information, contact Kim at: korankr@yahoo.com.
18 | September 2018 | OPTA