Outline
Like any professional who is being paid to undertake specialized tasks, Healthcare Professionals are required to adhere to certain vital principles and to develop attributes or values that would enable them to execute their work accordingly.
Most of these attributes are indispensable and are applied to daily medical practice.
Professional Attributes
Health Care Professionals are expected to commit and believe in certain fundamental principles to develop attributes characteristic of a professional person.
The main professional attributes a Health Care Professional is supposed to embrace and uphold include:
- Altruism (selflessness)
- Beneficence (being helpful).
- Truthfulness and honesty
- Interpersonal and communication skills.
- Fidelity/ dedication
- Professional development and lifelong learning.
- Honor and integrity in all conduct
The quality of selflessness, altruism or unselfish concern for the welfare of others is one very important attribute. The best care for the patient must be the principal driving force of practice. The Health care professional should therefore identify, respect and care about the patient’s preferences and expressed needs; listen to, inform and educate patients. As a matter of fact, patients have all the reasons to exercise autonomy and should be able to determine their treatment.
Beneficence is the quality of being kind, helpful or generous. This quality requires health professionals to be kind to their patients and to take such actions which are in the best interest and benefit of the patients. It is one of the core values of health care ethics (Beauchamp 52). On the other hand, the quality of not doing harm to the patient is called non-maleficence and is also equally important for it allows health practitioners to first evaluate treatments to ensure they do no harm. The attribute of being honest and truthful has increased in importance over the years. It helps reduce the chances of conflict between the patient and Health Care professionals and gives the patients a chance to make informed consent.
The ability to team with other health professionals, patients and their families is very essential since it results in effective information exchange. Thus, this calls for excellent interpersonal and communication skills for health care professionals.
Health professionals are also expected to practice fidelity in the discharge of duty. This means that one should be faithful, have constancy, dedication or loyalty in discharging his or her duties and obligations. This quality underlies excellence in patient care, confidentiality and commitment to continuously advocate disease prevention, wellness and promotion of healthy lifestyles.
Like any other professional, a Health care professional should also appreciate the importance of learning and continuing professional development. One should develop a lifelong commitment to learning and should be involved in lifelong learning and periodic self-assessment; practice-based learning and improvement that involves evaluation of one’s patient care and assimilation of knowledge to improve patient care and welfare.
Honor or evidence of professional standing and integrity in all conduct including generation and use of resources is another very critical attribute. There is always the need to comply with regulations and standards by having evidence of professional standing and by having all required certification and practice licenses.
Integrity itself is manifested through moral soundness; unreduced completeness or totality in commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, “adherence to ethical principles” and by actions that demonstrate a thorough understanding of the system for healthcare (Ryan 26). It is a very vital quality for not only Healthcare Professionals but for all practitioners involved in service delivery to people.
Example Situations of this Attributes and Practical Application
Though these attributes and qualities of a Health Care Professional do not necessarily give answers as to how to handle a particular situation, they help understand, reduce and resolve conflict. Again, it is important to avoid an ethical crisis at all costs by ensuring that all the time moral values are not in conflict.
It often becomes difficult in a practical situation for a Health Care Professional to strike a balance between his values and the patient’s preferences. For example, the value of beneficence or taking actions in the best interest of the patient comes to test when patients refuse blood transfusion or reject certain treatments because of religious or cultural beliefs. Indeed, the cultural background can create a whole range of health ethical problems. Some cultural and religious beliefs have theories about causes of ailment and believe in some sacrilegious remedial measures. As a result, reconciling this with the western healthcare practice can be a daunting task.
Thus, when the patient’s interest conflicts with the patient’s welfare, it is upon the Health care team to decide the “best way” to settle the concern (Conrad 263). In the western healthcare system, the patient’s wishes carry the day. This is particularly the case where the patient is mentally competent to make a decision. However, in many other societies, beneficence always takes precedence over patient autonomy.
Truth-telling and honesty are also some of the attributes to which one cannot turn a blind eye to. These critical attributes have become increasingly important over the years. This is as a result of heartbreaking incidents in the past such as the historical events of the Doctor’s Trial as well as the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study where patients were treated like guinea pigs.
Yet, so many people do not see the need to be informed of the diagnosis. For example, it is only until the early seventies that American society started to appreciate and embrace truth-telling and honesty in healthcare. But ever since, there has been a growing influence of this attribute in Healthcare.
Today, in practice, truth-telling and honesty are indispensable especially when it comes to such complications as HIV and cancer which need to be tamed early upon detection and where a patient has to be informed accordingly and advised on the best way forward. In the US truth-telling and honesty takes precedence over other values and patients are often informed of the diagnosis (Glick 234).
On the other hand, lack of proper or adequate communication has often resulted in ethical conflicts in the Health profession. In daily medical practice, a lack of communication can lead to more serious problems. These problems can however be resolved by establishing open lines of communication and through self-commitment to learn and develop excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Works Cited
Beauchamp, Childress, James F. “Principles of Biomedical Ethics”. New York: Oxford University Press (2001) 🙁 45-60). Print.
Conrad, P. “Wellness in the Workplace: Potentials and pitfalls of work-site health promotion”. Milbank Q 65(2) (1987):255-275. Print.
Glick, Shamood A. “A call for the development of Good Research Practices”. (GRP) guidelines (1993):231-235. Print.
Ryan CJ. “Ethical issues, part 2: ethics, psychiatry, and end-of-life issues”. Psychiatr Times (2010):26-27.print.