Professional Ethics

Professional Ethics

By Bachchu Kailash Kaini

Professional ethics is all about standard of behaviour that tells you what a professional should do and should not do in their professional life. Professional ethics establishes standards of behaviour and practice. Casto (1994) asserts that professional ethics safeguards the integrity of health care professionals and also protects health care professionals and their clients. Baldwin (2006) states that health care professionals consider values and ethics are an important part of professionalism, which has substantial overlap with concepts of humanism and morality.

According to IPEC (2011), interprofessional values and ethics are an important part of professional identity, which is both professional and interprofessional in nature. These interprofessional values and ethics are patient focused and community oriented, based in a sense of shared goals and purposes to support the effective delivery of health care and reflect a shared commitment of health care professionals to build efficient, effective and safer systems of care.

 All health care professionals have their own code of conduct developed by their professional bodies and societies. In terms of teamwork, section 4.2 of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) code of conduct for nurses and midwives in the UK says all registered nurses are expected to work co-operatively within teams and to respect the skills, expertise and contributions of their colleagues.

All health care professionals as a member of a health care professional team, remain accountable for their professional conduct. The following are the shared values and professional ethics of all the United Kingdom health care regulatory bodies (NMC 2004).

·         respect the patient or client as an individual

·         obtain consent before you give any treatment or care

·         protect confidential information

·         co-operate with others in the team

·         maintain your professional knowledge and competence

·         be trustworthy

·         act to identify and minimise risk to patients and clients.

General Medical Council (GMC, 2006) suggests that working in teams does not change doctors’ personal accountability for their professional conduct and the care they provide. When working in a team, doctors should act as a positive role model and try to motivate and inspire their colleagues. It further says that the doctors must:

·         respect the skills and contributions of their colleagues

·         communicate effectively with colleagues within and outside the team

·         make sure that patients and colleagues understand their role and responsibilities in the team

·         participate in regular reviews and audit of the standards and performance of the team, taking steps to remedy any deficiencies

·         support colleagues who have problems with performance, conduct or health.