vocational discernment

Well-Being and Vocational Discernment for the Health Professions

Sabrina M. Neeley Uncategorized , , ,
A series of posts about a collaborative project at the University of Dayton to develop courses, programs, and opportunities for undergraduate vocational discernment in the health professions, including a first-year course, “Discover Health and Medicine.”
https://www.vivekmurthy.com/about

In his August 2022 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general of the United States, discusses the mental and physical challenges that health professionals face. He cites several factors that contribute to these challenges and states that “we need to build a culture that supports well-being.” From his perspective, “culture change must start in our training institutions, where the seeds of well-being can be planted early.”

Interview with Dr. Vivek H. Murthy
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Be Like Lulu

David S. Cunningham Uncategorized ,

She’s all over the internet these days: soft brown eyes, deep in thought, with beautiful, shiny black . . . fur. Lulu is a service dog from Susquehanna who was enrolled in the CIA’s “puppy class” to be trained for explosive detection and other K-9 tasks. She has been showing up all over the web during the last few days for having failed to make the grade in her training.

It seems that Lulu was showing signs that she just wasn’t interested in the work. She was easily distracted; even when her trainers provided more incentives (in the form of food or play), she just wasn’t enjoying herself. She wanted to sniff for rabbits, rather than bombs.  She wanted work that provided Continue reading →

Finding your calling — and playing catch

David S. Cunningham Uncategorized , ,

The language of “vocational discernment” is finding a foothold in higher ed these days, but occasionally some critics have asked whether this is just a fancy way of talking about “deciding what to do in life.” playing-catchInstitutions may have adopted new language, but aren’t they simply doing what they’ve always done—namely, helping students to choose a major and to embark on a career?  Or does “vocational reflection and discernment” really point to a genuinely different way of helping students think about their future lives? I believe that it does, and that one way to understand this difference is to think about playing catch.

I don’t usually find myself turning to sports for metaphors, but I think this one works.  For most sports, there are certain things that one can do alone: learning about the game, undergoing physical conditioning, and watching the techniques of the greats.  In some cases, one can even practice a sport alone: go for a run, hit tennis balls against a wall, or throw softballs and baseballs into one of those “pitch-back” nets. But all athletes know that these experiences are not the same as Continue reading →