Guide or Rule?
I came across a brief article written by by Brain Alper called “Guide or Rule?”. I am grateful for his thoughts and perspectives. I posted his article at the end of my comments because it makes me think of the many hearing health and habilitation ‘guides’ that become perceived as ‘rules’.
Guides are written to inform parents of children with hearing differences and they do not intent to be rule oriented; however, I often see these guides perceived as rules: guides for language development, guides for cochlear implantation, guides on parent tips and advocacy, guides on best practices. I’m not going to focus this blog post on bashing of guides. I like them and they are useful, but it does bring up an important conversation about how these guides help or possibly hinder parent beliefs or decision making.
People can also be guides. When I council parents, I think how I can most effectively transfer knowledge and share my experiences that guide and encourage (rather than egg on another rule). I think about the vast array of hearing health data (which changes over time), child development (which evolves), diverse opinion, family culture, and communication opportunities. According to Brian, a guide is “someone who helps facilitate learning and navigate the complexity of decision making”. Parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing are faced with an abundance of information and often someone’s bias. One of the things I like to say to parents is, ”I have my own perspective and experiences, and I encourage you to talk with and listen to everything people say. Become informed by reading and researching as much as you can. Focus on what your heart is telling you though, and make your own decisions based on your beliefs, family culture, needs, and values.”
Parents are often overwhelmed with the information they hear, especially upon diagnosis of their children’s hearing difference. Professionals and other parents who coach and guide parents must ask themselves, “What is the best way to inform this parent and family? Can I detach from my bias, my beliefs, and my values and attune to parents’ innate capacity, character strengths, and unlimiting beliefs? Can I guide them down a path that they envision, and one which aligns with their hearts?”
Brian Alper, MD – Founder of DynaMed; Vice President of Innovations and EBM Development, EBSCO Health Ipswich (Oct. 2015)
A GUIDE is a person or thing that advises, shows the way, or helps someone form an opinion or make a decision. To GUIDE is to show the way or facilitate learning or decision-making.
Don’t confuse GUIDES with RULES. Many times in our work which is complex we have turned GUIDES into RULES. When I discover this I often repeat the classic line from Yoda: “You must unlearn what you have learned.”
I would rather be a GUIDE than a RULER.
For the world, DynaMed provides a GUIDE through the complex maze of clinical decision-making where the facts are approximations with varying degrees of certainty that are difficult to recognize, the expectations are multiperspective and multinational, and the values and preferences are individualized but the reference materials are usually not.
Where can you be a GUIDE? What have you learned that can help show the way for others? Whether directly interactive and socially engaging, or through reflection and writing, or some AMBIVERTED
combination, how can you help develop the GUIDE?
