According to Porter, health is an important value, but there are other values as well. For example, the doctor-patient relationship is a fundamental value. A physician-patient relationship, he proposes, is much more important than any other quality of care. He would never recommend a doctor who spends ten minutes with a patient before discussing his diagnosis and treatment options. As long as we know what these values are, we can make decisions accordingly and promote our health.
The International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare was developed to encourage healthcare professionals to reflect on their values and apply them in their interactions. This charter has been presented to hundreds of participants worldwide and is a dynamic and inclusive guide for improving health care. It is a framework for defining core human values and has been embraced by many countries, cultures, and healthcare systems. However, more work is needed to make these values a standard across the world.
The International Charter for Health Care has a set of principles that healthcare providers should adopt in their interaction with patients. It invites them to incorporate these values into the interactions they have with their patients, and to consider additional values. These guidelines are dynamic and inclusive and are meant to be adaptable and useful in addressing health concerns. Throughout the Charter, the relationships between values and health education and promotion will be explored. The goal is to achieve optimal health for the general population.
Whether or not these values are shared by healthcare workers is a key question to ask. The current value-driven culture and values-based approach to health education has been questioned, including by Olav Forde in the Social Science Medicine issue of 1998. For instance, increased health awareness is the result of media attention to diseases. The media’s attention to these issues fuels health care providers to continue promoting health and disease prevention.
The International Charter for Health has incorporated these values into health education. The International Charter invites healthcare professionals to integrate these values into their interactions, and to offer additional values that align with these principles. It is a dynamic document that can be used in healthcare settings around the world. It articulates the basic nature of core human values. It can be taught, shared, and adopted by people from different backgrounds and cultures. Further, the Charter can be used as a template to make policies for better health.
These values are not limited to the individual. For example, the International Charter invites healthcare providers to reflect on their own values and bring them into their interactions. Further, it also encourages healthcare providers to offer additional values. The International Charter was designed to be dynamic, allowing practitioners to be more inclusive. The principles of the charter are reflected in the cultures and languages of the different countries. The chart is a valuable resource for all the stakeholders in the health sector.