Political and Philosophical Stance

The political stance of our group is independent; we do not side completely with either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. The three main values and beliefs of our group were developed from those listed in Delivering Health Care in America by Shi and Singh. Our main values are a concern for the underprivileged of the American society, the importance of nationwide access to health care, and equally good services in poor or rural communities as affluent and urban areas. The main beliefs of our group include the importance of technology in health care, the necessary role of social and spiritual elements of health, and the positive use of clinical interventions instead of alternative therapies in helping patients. A last strong belief of our group is that “although health care will never be perfect, there is always room for improvement” (Consumers, 2007).

With the majority of our team majoring in radiation therapy, many of our beliefs and values directly support those held by radiation therapists, according to the ASRT website. Therefore, it is especially important to us that underprivileged people such as the elderly, the main demographic treated with radiation therapy, have access to good outpatient care without regard to how much money or insurance they have or the part of the country they live in. The use of technology and clinical interventions instead of alternative medicine is especially important to us as well, because without it, our practice would not exist. From both observations of patients and readings from a text on patient care, we have learned firsthand the importance of a strong social and spiritual network and belief system for the patient, especially when going through something as stressful as daily outpatient care like radiation therapy.

Although the use of technology and clinical interventions would most likely raise the costs of health care even further, it is for the good of the population. Our beliefs state that access to quality nationwide health care is important to us, which would also increase the financial burden of health care, but at the same time, it would allow many more people access. Having quality care would improve the overall quality of the system, which would hopefully pay off in the long run.

The political stance our group took is important, because being independent allows us to reach out and connect with both republican and democratic groups without being turned down before they even hear our ideas. According to wikipedia.com, although many people will say it is better to have a strong political opinion or affiliation one way or another, being middle of the road has worked out for many elected officials.

Written by: Rachel deLongpre

References

• About our profession. (2009). Retrieved February 11, 2009, from American society of radiologic technologists Web site: https://www.asrt.org/content/abouttheprofession/_AboutTheProfession.aspx
• Adler, A. M., & Carlton, R. R. (2007). Introduction to radiologic sciences and patient care.St. Louis, Missouri: Saunders Elsevier.
• Principles Values and Beliefs. (2007, January 22). Retrieved February 11, 2009, Consumers advancing patient safety Web site: www.patientsafety.org/page/97014
• Shi, L., & Singh D. A. (2008). Delivering health care in America: a systems approach. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett.
• Wikipedia contributors, (2009). Independent (politician). In Wikipedia [Web]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_(politician)