[Sent – 10 may 2020 to the 170+ surgeons et al of our Surgical Ethics (Education) Consortium]
Greetings from St. Louis and WashU. For ‘Surgical Ethics Education Resources #32’, I am sharing with you a suggestion for establishing the place/significance of ‘trust’ in explaining/framing the ethical dimension of surgical care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made ‘trust’ front-page news – (the lack of) trust in political leaders, in public health officials, in hospitals, in caregivers, in PPE, in laboratories, in triage officers, in workers deemed essential, in human-subject researchers, in science, in neighbors, et al. We educators have an opportunity to refresh the pause effect of this common but nonetheless profound word – ‘trust’. When I attempt to do so, I tell a story.
Several years ago, I created the PowerPoint slide below to visualize a lasting lesson from my childhood (b. 1951) re what it means to ‘trust’. A few of you are old enough to remember seeing utility line workers ‘walk’ up a utility pole using the strapped-on spiked leggings, reach the lines to repair, turn loose of and lean back from the pole, and begin to work. Quite a site for an impressionable young boy! My father worked on the management side of the local phone company. He often took me to work sites. I vividly recall standing by his side when he would say, “Now watch what he does” once the utility line worker finally reached the lines. I would look up. To my child amazement (time and again), the utility line worker would turn loose of and lean back from the pole. He did so because he trusted the security belt that was looped around his waist and around the pole. Each time, my father would draw my attention to the security belt and say, “Son, that’s trust”.
Doug