213249 For Professionals and the Public, Professional Integrity Matters

Monday, November 9, 2009: 2:30 PM

David Cohen, JD , Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC
  
Polling across many professions and many years shows a consistent pattern: For professionals, the ability to do the job right is a priority as important as, sometimes more important than, compensation and benefits. Professionals choose their professions and value the intellectual freedom that is required to meet professional standards. The public health field is no exception. This presentation will discuss and analyze the role professional integrity plays for practicing professionals and how connecting unions to professional integrity, and professional integrity to the public, dramatically reframes the objectives of organizing professional and technical employees.

Professionals for the Public Interest: Associations and Unions Defending Professional Integrity will also be discussed in this presentation. This unprecedented coalition includes organizations representing professionals in science, engineering, health, the arts, and human services. It advocates for allowing professionals to do their work on the basis of expertise, experience, and high standards, with transparency and trust. This presentation will identify how achieving that goal means a better quality of life for all of us.

Learning Objectives:
1. Discuss and assess the role professional integrity plays for practicing professionals.

Keywords: Union, Professionalism

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be a moderator because I 1) have spent more than two years working on the topic, 2) have worked with each of the panelists, and 3) helped organize the coalition that will be a major focus of the panel. I have also moderated many other panels, including one at a previous APHA convention.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Health, Professional Integrity and the Public Interest
See more of: Labor Caucus