“Take the syllogism all doctors are professionals; all doctors are skilled at their job; therefore, all doctors are skilled professionals: one could rightly say that the conclusion is supported by the premises, but the premises themselves are untrue since not all doctors are equally skilled at their job, and not all doctors behave professionally all of the time.”
- An important aspect of professionalism is to ensure that the doctor or healthcare professional’s primary focus is on the protection of a patient and the members within the public, rather than to satisfy one’s own interests.
- Patients should expect a certain standard of conduct as well as an appropriate level of technical knowledge and experience from doctors and other professionals. Unfortunately, in different settings, these types of assumptions cannot be made as these standards are neither uniform or applied in the same way.
- There is a close link between professionalism and ethics but these terms are not the same. There are many attributes to ethical practises that align with the attributes found within professionalism and therefore there is a sense of “interdependence” between these two terms and practises – ethics and professionalism “each has its place and each has relevance to the other”.
- There is currently no single definition for ethics or professionalism; instead each term gains its meaning through the use of application. As a result, they may need to be understood in different ways depending on “local, geo-political and legal factors”.
- In order to be deemed a professional, there needs to be a combination of both technical competence as well as certain behavioural attributes.
- Professionalism is centred primarily on relationships i.e. social, clinical, financial and inter-professional relationships.
- Core attributes of professionalism are often formed on the basis of ethical norms – theses may include: “respect for confidentiality and patient autonomy”, as well as ensuring that correct conduct is maintained in interactions with colleagues.
- Please follow the following link for more information on the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2007505715000046
This is a helpful research paper, as it clearly identifies the difficulties that can be experienced within the healthcare sector in terms of ethical considerations that must be considered and how there is a clear and distinctive link between ethical practise and professionalism. In the field of physiotherapy, there is constant communication between different healthcare professionals, however when this fails, it can negatively affect the professional relationship developed between the various individuals. It is for this reason that members within the varying healthcare teams strive to uphold high ethical and professional standards in their interactions between each other as well as with the patient and members of the public. This is to ensure that medical care of the highest standard is maintain and that patients can be confident that there will be a healthcare professional that is truly concerned with their needs and willing to advocate for them to the various other healthcare teams.
Reference
Worthington, R. (2015). Ethics and professionalism in a changing world. Investigación En Educación Médica, 4(15), 175-178. Retrieved on 06/10/2018 from doi: 10.1016/j.riem.2015.05.002
2 thoughts on “Ethics and Professionalism”
Well written Robyn.
I really enjoyed your article that you used. I felt that it really summed up the difference between ethics and professionalism as well as how they seem interdependent in many circumstances.
I feel that it would be nice if you added in a little bit more personal experience. i.e. where or if you have seen a medical professional not have a patients best interest in mind.
Personally it has happened on many accounts in which i have gone up to a doctor in a hospital and ask them something. The doctor didn’t even look up from their phone or paper and just said one word answer bluntly. This is where i see professionalism among health care professionals is lacking in our hospitals.
Overall i really enjoyed reading your work.
Hi Robyn
I enjoyed the opening quote you used for your piece. Not only did it make me instantly want to read your thoughts on it, but made me feel that I may be able to relate to your piece.
Your writing is well constructed, clear and easy to follow with few grammatical errors. It may have been easier to grasp your information had you given a heading to your bullet points, as I was not sure if I was reading fact-based points on professionalism, or someone’s point of view.
I would have benefited from reading a personal experience you faced in dealing with lack of professionalism. It would be nice to see what you learned from the situation so that I could draw from your experience if I am faced with it in future. I felt that I could relate to this because I have struggled with severe frustration regarding doctors discharging patients without consulting any other multidisciplinary members, before they are ready to go home. When confronting them on more than one occasion, they would not hear the fact that they made a poor call, and treated my opinion unprofessionally.
Your article is a good read with valid points, I enjoyed the contrast between the article you drew from, and the simplicity of the information you displayed.