Explanation of the Term Profession

The words ‘profession’ and ‘professional’ come from the Latin word ‘professio’ which means a public declaration with the force of a promise.

Professions are groups which declare in a public way that their members promise to in certain ways and that the group and the society may discipline those who fail to do so.

The profession presents itself to society as a social benefit and society accepts the profession, expecting it to serve some important social goal.

The profession usually issues a code of ethics stating the standards by which its members can be judged

It is a service profession dedicated to patients, cantering on the doctor-patient relationship.

the prevention of disease and injury,

the promotion and maintenance of health,

the relief of pain and suffering,

the care and cure of those with illness,

the avoidance of premature death, and

the pursuit of a peaceful death.

The true professionalism in medicine will always put in first place the well-being of the patient and the community as principal objective.

Medicine is a moral endeavour which demands integrity, competence, and high ethical standards among other key attributes.

Ethics

A systematic study of what a persons’ conduct and actions ought to be with regard to himself or herself, other human beings and the environment.

The word ethics originated from the Greek word ‘ethos’ meaning customs or character.

It is concerned with judgement about what is right or wrong conduct.

Virtue

Moral excellence, goodness and rightness.

It is also defined as conformity of one’s life and conduct to moral and ethical principles, uprightness, and rectitude.

Virtue Ethics

Refers to a virtue of character as a health practitioner rather than rules governing conduct or consequences of any action by a health practitioner.

Virtue ethics demands the practitioner to exercise loyalty, devotion and trustworthiness, good temperament, compassion and integrity.

Bioethics

A system of standards arising from the professional agreement to determine, sanctions, and justify the interaction of biomedical professional and patient

a)Body of knowledge

Usually the knowledge is not easily understood by the public, and consequently the professions are given substantial control over its use.

They acquire responsibility for its integrity, for its proper application, and for its expansion.

Professions have an obligation to transmit their knowledge by teaching it to future practitioners, the general public, and their patients.

The knowledge is used in the service of others.

Clinicians use their knowledge primarily to benefit individual patient.

There is agreement that the trust placed in the professions and their privileged status are only justified by the expectation that they will be altruistic.

For clinicians this means consistently placing the interests of individual patients and society above their own.

Individually, clinicians are granted sufficient autonomy to act in the best interests of their patients.

In the early days, autonomy was expressed in a paternalistic fashion, but modern society, recognising patient autonomy, now views the clinician-patient relationship as a partnership.

The profession is also granted collective autonomy through self-regulation.

It has the privilege and obligation to set and maintain standards for education and training, entry into practice, and the standards of practice.

It must guarantee the competence of its practitioners, and has an absolute obligation to discipline unprofessional, incompetent, or unethical conduct.

Code of ethics

Professions have codes of ethics which specify the obligations arising from their duty.

Professionalism requires that the practitioner strive for excellence in the following areas which should be modelled by mentors and teachers and become part of the attitudes, behaviours, and skills integral to patient care

Accountability: Clinicians are accountable to their patients, to society on issues of public health, and to their profession.

Excellence: Clinicians are obligated to make a commitment to life-long learning.

Duty: Clinicians should be available and responsive when ‘on call,’ accepting a commitment to service within the profession and the community.

Honour and integrity: Clinicians should be committed to being fair, truthful and straightforward in their interactions with patients and the profession.

Respect for others: A Clinician should demonstrate respect for patients and their families, other physicians and team members, medical students, residents and fellows.

These values should provide guidance for promoting professional behaviour and for making difficult ethical decisions.

The profession usually issues a code of ethics stating the standards by which its members can be judged

The fundamental principles of professionalism are stated as the primacy of patient welfare, patient autonomy and social justice

commitment to competence,

to honesty with patients,

to confidentiality,

to appropriate relationship with patients,

to improving quality of care,

to a just distribution of limited resources,

to scientific knowledge,

to maintaining trust by managing conflicts of interests and

to professional responsibilities

Accountability: All health professional are accountable to their patients and to their profession, accountable for patient care and self-regulation.

Morality and integrity: The professions are expected to be moral, ethical, and carry out their activities with integrity.

Each health worker is responsible for the actions of their associations.

Professional associations and licensing bodies must not engage in activities which detract from the morality and integrity of the profession.

Any professional health worker has the following responsibilities

Professional competence

Honesty with patients

Patient confidentiality

Appropriate relations with patients

Improve quality of care

Improve access to care

Just (fair) distribution of resources

Scientific knowledge

Manage conflicts of interest

Professional associations and licensing bodies are characteristics of all professions.

They operate under government authority, which may be altered if society becomes dissatisfied with their performance.

The role of professional bodies in self-regulation is major, as is the expectation that they will advise the public as experts in their domain.

Medical associations also have an obligation to protect the interests of their individual members.

The associations and licensing bodies have a primary role in guaranteeing the quality of healthcare services.

Morality and virtue must be integral to the rules, processes and procedures by which Medicine governs and regulates itself.

Medicine’s professional associations must be extremely wise in how they negotiate for their members

Any hint that the public good is being ignored during these negotiations can be damaging to the credibility of the profession and result in loss of the trust, which is so essential to the healing process.

The privilege of self-regulation entails an absolute obligation to guarantee the competence of members.

The setting and maintenance of standards is of overriding importance, and issues such as recertification and revalidation are, without question, now regarded as professional obligations.

The disciplining of unethical or incompetent practitioners must be rigorous, open, and have the support of every practising clinician.

Not only are individual clinicians are expected to demonstrate morality and virtue, but so are the institutions which represent them.