EXERCISES: BECOMING A PROVIDER
EXERCISE 9.1
- In which setting(s) do you visualize your future participation in reproductive health or abortion care? Do you imagine joining a team that already offers services? Or do you picture starting services at a new site? Do you see yourself adding reproductive health services in a setting where access is currently limited?
- Do you see yourself as a trainer or joining a professional training or residency program as faculty?
- How do you frame this discussion with potential employers? How would you ascertain if your potential employer is open to offering abortion services?
- If an employer thought Title X clinics couldn’t provide abortions, what would you say to them?
EXERCISE 9.2: Employment negotiations
- Preparation is key to successful interviewing and negotiations with a future employer. Examine your practice priorities and rank them by their relative importance. What strategies can you use to ensure that your priorities are met?
- Creating a list of questions prior to your interview will help you prepare. What information would you want to obtain? How will you address parts of the interview process that will be more challenging for you?
EXERCISE 9.3: Managing stigma: the decision to disclose
(Adapted from The Providers Share Workshop, Debbink 2012)
For most people talking about their work hardly registers as a decision. For abortion providers, doing so always involves assessments (sometimes unconscious) of risks and benefits, for oneself as well as family members. Below is an exercise to help:
- Deepen awareness of ways disclosure is negotiated in your life
- Evaluate the risks and benefits of the decision to disclose or not, and
- Increase control over disclosure decisions.
Exercise instructions:
See table below, and select a relationship in which issues of disclosure arise. Explore the risks and benefits of disclosure (to you or the relationship). If you have time, make a possible disclosure plan, and role-play. Repeat with additional relationships as applicable.
| Relation-ship | Time or Age | Contextual Details/Consideration | Disclosure | Non-Disclosure | Decision* | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potential Risks | Potential Benefits | Potential Risks | Potential Benefits | ||||
| EXAMPLE Adult Extended Family |
Now | My in-laws do not know about my abortion work. They are religiously conservative and anti-choice. I have 2 young children. We are close and rely on their assistance with childcare. | Loss of relationship would be a loss to kids, and loss of family support. Could undermine my work. Risks consequences in their community. | Possibility they accept. Relief from worry about silence, “accidental outing”. Extended family could celebrate my successes. | Uncontrolled accidental outing, Persistent strain on relations. Not sure I can disclose to kids –moves to a family secret. | Preservation of innocent relationships and tenuous peace in family. Continued reliance on them for childcare. |
⇔ D ND |
| This
text should
be invisible
|
⇔ D ND |
||||||
*D = I mostly discuss openly, but sometimes choose not to. ND = I never discuss; the risks are too great.
*