What I do

In short, I am a public health professional. According to the CDC Foundation this means my work revolves around the protection and improvement of health of people and their communities [1]. My contribution to public health in Europe is my work towards full professionalization of public health workforces in Europe. I believe that public health professionals must be provided with the training, guidance and opportunity to make good decisions for the communities we serve.

Early on in my studies for my Bachelor's degree in European Public Health I found my passion for health law and decided for my minor that I wanted to follow classes on European law and legal history, philosophical ethics, European public health law and patient's rights. For my Bachelor thesis, I compared the European frameworks on consumer law and patients' rights where I gained a deep understanding of the importance of the legal safeguarding of patients' rights.

One year later, for my Master's thesis project, I decided I wanted to make a difference in how public health is practiced. When I thought about the wicked problems of public health and moral dilemmas inherent to the profession, I wished for a sort of manual that guides the decisions we make. Based on moral values for circumstances that are unexpected, unclear and unpredictable. When I found that there was no public health code of conduct that outlined what public health professionals in Europe stand for, what our duties and standards are, I knew I wanted to get involved.

I dedicated my thesis placement to systematically extracting everything I could find out about codes of conduct and their creation and developed a theoretical model for the creation of public health codes of conduct and a template for a code with norms, values and principles shared across the world. The result is a blueprint that can be used by public health institutions, organizations and leaders to create their own codes of conduct. The goal is that public health workers define what rules they adhere to based on their own communal resources, needs and culture. To actively facilitate an ethical and values-based professional culture. To serve my profession, my colleagues and our communities.

Thank you for visiting my website

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