Introduction
The provision of quality healthcare should be without any discrimination. It should befit all the patient’s needs and preferences and avoid unnecessary delays during its administration. A study by Healy (2011) rates Australia as having one of the best quality care systems globally. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare acts as a guideline to ensure that strategic measures of quality and safety are put in place in all healthcare facilities (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2009) Healthcare professionals are judged by their behaviors, mode of communication and general etiquette. It is common sense that when a patient comes to seek healthcare services in a healthcare facility, they put their trust in the health and human service practitioner in the belief that their problem will be taken off. Most healthcare centers fail to meet the high expectation of the patient due to the unprofessional conduct of their practitioners. This not only leaves the patient dissatisfied but the general image of healthcare professionals is destroyed. This paper will therefore analyze the general conduct of healthcare professionals and what is expected of them as professionals.
Understanding Professionalism In Healthcare Context
Many scholars have attempted to define the term ‘professionalism’ but no specific definition has surfaced. However, professionalism is the high level of competency or skill portrayed by a professional. The main role of a professional in the healthcare context is to offer quality clinical services to patients (Bhugra and Malik, 2010). The skills and character of such a professional are therefore reflected in a multi-faceted approach to the general rules and regulations that govern clinical practices. Health care practitioners are faced with several issues that put their professional conduct in question. Some of the issues include lack of proper communication, loss of patient information, or even medical errors. Though the issues are blamed on other factors such as poor technological infrastructure systems, most are blamed on personal negligence by healthcare practitioners.
A professional should therefore be guided by a code of ethics to ensure professionalism and integrity when discharging their duties. A good example is the Australian Code of Professional Conduct for nurses and medical doctors which sets out the expected professional conduct of the medical practitioners in the course of their duties. This is regardless of whether they are dealing with patients, health care workers, or medical officials. To realize these norms of healthcare, professionals should not only be guided by the set codes but also through their set principles. Professionalism in the healthcare context, therefore, upholds the principles of universalism and neutrality that guarantee proper and quality administration of healthcare services.
Professional Practice In Context
Healthcare professionals are highly regarded in the community. It is their sole responsibility to bring quality clinical service to the members of society within an ethical, legal, and safe context.
Professionalism is the key that not only ensures improvement in quality but its sustenance through patient safety. The professionals should value the culture of patient safety when delivering the services (Dunbar et.al, 2007). Honesty in upholding integrity is part of the professional conduct expected of a health care professional. The theoretical aspect of a professional health care provider is comprehensively understood by understanding the safe, ethical, and legal context of the service delivery to which it is applied.
Why is an ethical framework important? Ethical conflicts hinder professionals from administering quality health services to their patients. An example of an ethical conflict is when a patient fails to heed a professional’s instructions to take medication even though it is in his best interest. Ethical issues require a professional to respect the client’s choice at all times. The behavioral directives of a professional regarding client choice are demonstrated through respecting client wishes and directives. A professional is expected to uphold a therapeutic relationship with their clients at all times both at an individual and interprofessional framework (Clarke and Oakley, 2007) Assistance should also be sought from other interprofessional colleagues in case of an ethical conflict. However, despite the ethical professionalism expected from the practitioner to respect the client’s choices, the same principle can be argued against. Health experts argue that some clients do not consider the outcome of their choices hence endangering their safety or those of other people involved in the process of ensuring administration of quality health care service through patient safety (Reynolds and Helen, 2008). In such instances, most practitioners are at a loss on how to handle the conflicts and still manage to uphold their professionalism.
A good example is a situation where the medical practitioner is requested by a client to administer an act that is illegal or harmful. The practitioner, in such instances, should advise the client about the potential risk of that particular act in a non-judgmental manner to win the client’s favor. This may be a difficult task especially if the beliefs and values of a client differ from those of the practitioner. A practitioner can reassign the client to another practitioner to uphold his professionalism. Ethical issues also include privacy and confidentiality. A clear distinction should be drawn between privacy and confidentiality. Whilst privacy is limited to the individual, confidentiality relates to the information shared between the client and the practitioner. A breach of the same can lead to major ethical conflicts that can put the professional’s conduct in question. Other ethical issues include the role of professionals to respect life and honor their commitments. This brings to fore the highly debatable issue of euthanasia. The Euthanasia Laws Act in Australia prohibits a health care practitioner from voluntarily ending a client’s life as a solution to relieve his pain. Professionalism in this case is greatly tested when the practitioner is faced with a genuine suffering client who has no hopes of recovering. The professional ethical conduct ties him from doing what he would have normally done in normal instances.
The legal framework is also very important as it provides guideline policies to operate within. The legal system in Australia operates differently in the nine jurisdictions which pose a challenge in an attempt to demystify it. This means that an operational activity in one jurisdiction may be illegal in another. However, Kerr (2011) seems to draw a general principle on the legal systems that guide a professional in the medical field to provide quality care and services. The legal framework correlates with the ethical requirements in all aspects. A breach in an ethical issue can lead to a lawsuit against the professional. Practitioners are bound under the legal framework to conduct themselves professionally. They are expected to deliver quality care to all patients without any discrimination and to put the limited resources into proper use. The framework also requires all practitioners to undergo intensive training in their field of discipline and to be registered under the law. This is to ensure that the safety of patients is guaranteed in the hands of experts. The doctrine of negligence has been applied in cases of voluntary negligence by a professional to determine the compensation to be paid to the patient. The negligence may be blamed on the individual or the whole interprofessional community responsible for the conduct of their staff. Understanding the legal framework given professionalism is a complex task that requires one to understand all the legal legislations put in place. Such knowledge will act as a stepping stone to any professional who acts within the legal framework to avoid unfortunate outcomes.
Safety is the key element that should be adhered to by a professional. Medical errors decrease the level of patient safety (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2009). Though it is argued that medical errors are inevitable, the same can be reduced drastically to increase patient safety. A study conducted in health care centers in South Wales and South Australia in 1995 indicated that 51% of adverse effects leading to deaths and disabilities were as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented. Most experts argue that the healthcare itself is not safe and hence the numerous errors caused by the practitioners. Professionalism entails a detailed study of how to make the system safer to prevent medical errors characterized by human negligence. Inadequate training, lack of checks and balances, and unreasonable working hours systems should be rectified to avoid unnecessary errors. A safe healthcare system involves the key players in all departments. Effective communication from one level to another also creates a haven by preventing medical errors. Patient information should be recorded and the file kept within reach for easy retrieval of information.
Mechanisms Used To Guide, Monitor, And Control The Professional’s Behaviours
Specific mechanisms have been put in place to ensure quality care services. The mechanisms control the professionals not to operate outside their required jurisdiction of healthcare service (Horner et.al, 2004).
The client feedback mechanism operates within the set framework to ensure quality improvement. Though independent from other mechanisms, it establishes a relationship between the clients and professionals attending to them. Client satisfaction is the ultimate goal in any healthcare service hence the need to get feedback from the clients regarding the quality of the service received. The feedback may be made verbally or in written form. The professionals contribute towards the quality improvement of this particular mechanism in various ways. First, they ensure that they give quality and standard service to their clients at all times. They also ensure that any client-practitioner conflicts are handled with professionalism. In instances where client values seem to clash with those of
Team and staff training mechanisms should also be put in place to guide and control the behaviors of the professionals. Professionals should undergo intensive training programs that encompass various learning methods. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the programs is carried out to determine the specific outcomes. Let’s take an example of professionals who constantly requires upgrading their diagnostic procedures and treatments for special cases such as heart diseases or HIV/AIDS. The professional plays a big role to ensure effective utilization of this mechanism by voluntarily participating in conferences, workshops, and other training programs related to the upgrading to ensure quality delivery of services (Dewdney, 2008).
The monitoring and assessment mechanism also plays an important role to monitor, assess and control the behavior of a professional. The healthcare progress is measured regarding well-versed disparities in terms of diagnosis and treatment to ensure client satisfaction and inequality elimination. The mechanism is part of an assurance program that should be conducted in all healthcare facilities. The professionals ensure quality improvement of the mechanism by providing accurate data regarding their performances. Accountability by the management is essential to monitor the progress of the quality healthcare culture. Professionals contribute to quality improvement of the mechanism by establishing set objectives that work towards its goal achievement. For example, a situation where there is an unequal distribution of resources between the professionals at the health center may affect their effective administration of service to the clients. The objective of the professional would be to review the current distribution strategies through the mechanism to streamline the same.
Certification and accreditation mechanism put in place to assess a professional’s conduct is also important. Professionals’ behaviors are based on their competence which should be proved through documentation. The licensing boards and Joint commissions on healthcare certifications and accreditations are some of the bodies largely involved in this process. Professionals are involved in ensuring that they get quality training on cultural competence to acquire the required accreditation that qualifies them to handle healthcare matters professionally. What then is the criterion used to analyze if a professional is competent enough to be licensed? Several measures are taken by professionals to promote the mechanism. For example, professionals may develop and implement voluntary accreditation and certification program. The program is aimed at verifying professionals who have met the required standards of competency. This not only enhances competency among the professionals but also increases the quality level of their performance.
Diversifying the membership of governing boards governing the healthcare facilities is another mechanism that needs to be adopted. The members are in charge of evaluating and monitoring the healthcare professional behavior about their competencies. The board concerns itself with the clinical, regulatory, or issues relating to operational policies. Diversification entails including health providers on the board to ensure performance. How do professionals promote this mechanism? They play an active role in holding a constant election process to vote for their favorite board members. For example, a situation where some board members tend to discriminate in equal allocation of limited resources causes dissatisfaction amongst health providers. Professionals can remedy the situation by raising the issue on the board in a professional manner.
Conclusion
Professionalism is earned. Medical practitioners are judged through their daily conduct to ascertain their level of professionalism. A professional in a working context should uphold and deliver quality care and service in an ethical, legal, and safe manner to ensure client satisfaction. The mechanisms are continuing processes that ensure that professionals’ behaviors are guided, monitored, and controlled to suit the required healthcare jurisdiction. Failure to put in place such mechanisms can lead to practitioners going against their professional ethical values.
Reference List
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Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. (2009). Safety Through Action: Improving Patient Safety in Australia. Web.
Bhugra, D. and Malik, A. (2010). Professionalism in Mental Healthcare: Experts, Expertise and Expectations. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Clarke, S. and Oakley, J. (2007). Informed Consent and Clinician Accountability: the ethics of report cards on surgeon performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dewdney, H. (2008). Australian Health Services. Melbourne: Wiley & Sons Australasia Pty.
Dunbar et.al. (2007). In the wake of hospital enquiries: Impact on staff and safety. Medical Journal of Australia, 186(2), 80-83.
Healy, J. (2011). Improving Health Care Safety and Quality Reluctant Regulators. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Horner, R. et.al. (2004). Challenging Healthcare Professionals’ Behaviours to Eliminate Disparities in Healthcare: What Do We Know? How Might We Proceed? Web.
Kerr, K. (2011). Good Medical Practice: Professionalism, Ethics and Law. Australian Medical Student Journal, 2(1), 87-100.
Reynolds, W. and Helen, K. (2008). Understanding the Australian Health Care System. Victoria: Elsevier Publishers.