What Can I Do as a Health Practitioner?

As a healthcare practitioner, you know that good health is ultimately the product of social factors, such as access to good nutrition, clean water and air, education, freedom from violence, and family and community connectedness. Health-eroding factors such as poverty, discrimination, an unhealthy natural environment, violence, and stress are inherent in cultures orienting to the Domination System. As we learn more about how unhealthy Domination Systems are, it becomes clear that health practitioners have a vital role in transforming the larger culture so the work of caring for people and nature is truly valued and supported.

Partnership-oriented healthcare systems (as described in Eisler's and Potter's Transforming Interprofessional Partnerships: A New Framework for Nursing and Partnership-Based Health Care) are essential to support good health. Yet the healthcare systems we've inherited are still largely shaped by our legacy of domination.

• Many healthcare systems perpetuate the rigid hierarchies of Domination Systems. Doctors "give orders" that both nurses and patients are expected to unquestioningly obey. Patients may be treated as the objects of medical intervention, rather than as partners in caring for their own health.
• Healthcare systems may perpetuate the Domination System's ranking male over female, and ranking those things associated with "masculinity" (like technology) over matters associated with "femininity" (like care). This is why nursing, a primarily female profession, has not been given full respect and value.
• The good news is that evidence shows that using the Partnership System in healthcare organizations generates better outcomes for patients and greater satisfaction and engagement of staff. You can become an advocate for and implementer of the Partnership System in your workplace by learning about exciting examples of partnership-oriented healthcare organizations.