Virginia Community Health Worker Association

Ethics in Action is a five-hour, justice-centered ethics training for Virginia State-Certified Doulas. It asks participants to examine their personal ethical values before ever opening a rulebook — establishing the foundation that makes the VCB Code of Ethics meaningful rather than procedural. The course moves through the full arc of ethical doula practice: who you are as a practitioner, how scope and power operate in birth spaces, what informed consent actually requires, how to maintain boundaries as a professional obligation, and how to name and resist surveillance harm in community birth work.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Apply a personal ethical framework grounded in community practice values and self-knowledge
2. Distinguish in-scope from out-of-scope doula actions with confidence and judgment, including in ambiguous situations
3. Support informed consent processes using the BRAIN framework in real birth scenarios
4. Articulate, set, and maintain professional boundaries as a VCB ethical obligation
5. Name surveillance harm and apply non-extractive care principles to documentation and client interaction
6. Write client documentation using factual, dignity-centered language that protects both client and practitioner
7. Evaluate social media and marketing content against explicit consent standards
8. Apply ethical reasoning to complex case studies involving power, scope, and community relationships