K Peer Summary

In the first in the series of articles the author, K.S. Peer, introduced the works and briefly discussed the ethical challenges faced by clinicians to fulfill the role of being a health care provider in an ever-changing environment that is sports medicine. Health care providers, namely athletic trainers, must know where they stand in the realm of ethical decision making in sports medicine (Peer, 2017). Health care professionals have long been expected to practice while keeping patient needs first and all the while put forth continuing education to allow for continued aptitude in an ever-changing environment. (Peer) To achieve the necessary knowledge and abilities that are essential to being able to provide athletes with most relevant care,

She gave insight on how health care providers or sports medicine professionals are expected to uphold standards, adapt to changes, while supporting professionalism and acting in the best interest of the athlete. As unfortunate as it may be, the author did well to illustrate how the ever-changing realm of sport is forcing issues that put health care providers in ethical binds. The author went on to say that ethical education is dwindling, and ethics of decision making is not seen as important in formal education. The article uses a central theme of a so called social contract that unites health care providers and those they serve. The author illustrates it well and explains how the constructs and integrity of the social contract are always threatened by health care providers and their responses to outside pressures. As it pertains to this article, a question I might have for a health care administrator is “How might formal educational programs be implemented or changed to promote ethics and ethical decision

Like the preceding, this article uses the social contract to continue the discussion and to guide the study. Looking at the groups of participants I found it intriguing that they combined program directors and head athletic trainers. Though it is understandable that head athletic trainers play a role in education, they are also of professional age. The author could have explained it better so to eliminate confusion. The author also expressed a need for there to be some written expression of professional values beyond what exists already, this is something I can agree with and I feel like it would help the profession. While reading this article one question that came to mind was “How do health care administrators view professional