Professionalism in Medicine

This paper would be dedicated to the discussing of the three cases of unprofessional behaviour of future physicians: case with the relative of the dying patient, case in cafeteria and case when student sat down in a room while rounding.

As to the first case, the physicians are required to act in accordance with the general regulations- being dignified, courteous and civil manner towards their colleagues and patients. In addition, they should be able to emphasize and to apply professional approach in the cases when the outcome of the situation is predicted as in a case with the relative of the dying patient.

The core purpose of such approach practical implementation is providing all the people involved into the healthcare professional activity, with the guideline to follow the general regulations and as a result, with a possibility to act professionally in the healthcare environment - whether it is relationship with colleagues patients or senior physicians or students, such behavior should be formed at the beginning of the career path and only in such case it may be applied automatically in each particular case, e.g. when the situation is developed in such manner as in CASE 1.

While taking in account this situation in particular, it is possible to assume that the core reason of the students’ mistake has been the lack of sensitiveness and professional experience. The specific of the physicians’ professional activity implies such cases almost every day and, that is why, the doctors should find the proper words to addresse to the relatives, probably they should refer to such issues as hope, life and future. In addition, when the lack of professional activity is the main reason for mistakes or the personal feature of the student does not imply the indifference, such confuses may take their place.

To my opinion, the following guideline should be provided for the students: how to act in particular cases and in the situations when the fatal disease takes its place and there is a need of communication with relatives. There is a set of typical psychological approaches which should be mastered by future physicians and then practically applied.

Such policy should not offer the strict regulations how to act in cases like this because each one is individual. The policy only should provide the guideline for the actions in stressful situation while being emphatic, sensitive and professional. The practical application of the guideline would create an environment which would assist the professional development, and which would help to deal effectively and quickly with the problematical and stressful cases (Luchies, 2011).

While taking into account the second case in cafeteria, it is possible to qualify it as disruptive behaviour which cannot be considered as the representation of high personal ethical standards. Even while taking into account the fact that the student had a positive intensions, the way of communication with the cafeteria staff cannot be considered as the representation of a professional behaviour due to the fact that the high standards of morality, self esteem and respectful attitude towards people employed in the healthcare establishments whether they are doctors or the staff are the key success factors for the professional development along with the deep knowledge in particular areas of medicine.

While taking into account the disruptive behaviour notion, such behaviour when the person is using inappropriate words, actions and physical interferes. In the case in the cafeteria, inappropriate behaviour has taken place. If the situation developed in more kind and polite manner, the same goal might have been achieved without being rude and unprofessional.

That is why, in this case it is possible to make a conclusion that the professional behaviour combined with the good clinical skills and theoretical background in several areas of medicine is the core component of the physician performance and entire professional activity.

In other worlds, the medical professionalism involves not only traditional responsibilities implied by the particular professional activity, but also the quality of relations between a doctor and a patient and between a doctor and society (people, who are not directly related to the professional activity of the doctor - relatives of patients, staff of the healthcare establishment etc.)

The third incident is related to the personal ethics of the student and the fourth one deals with the norms and standards of the professional activity in the particular health care establishment. In my personal opinion, all the incidents are not directly related to the unprofessional behavior due to the fact that the student has not acquired enough knowledge about the specific work and the norms of behavior in the particular healthcare establishment. In addition, all the cases are not about the lack of professional knowledge since there was no incorrect diagnose or medical treatment (Walther, 2010).

While taking into account the theoretical approaches discussed in the first two sections, it is possible to make a conclusion that all four incidents are the examples of unprofessional behavior and the unprofessional attitude in the healthcare establishments should be corrected on the initial stage of the students’ professional development.

The main purposes of the professional behavior achievement in the healthcare establishments are the following: development of the organizational culture, improvement of the reputation of the current professionals in the healthcare and, finally, improvement of the quality of the attitude towards patients and the quality of the medical treatment.

As an integrated conclusion for three cases, it is possible to outline the set of responsibilities implied by the doctors’ professional activity.

First of all, there are responsibilities towards the patient as medical staff has to do everything possible to address the interests of the patients. In other words, such behavior implies respectful attitude towards the patients, ones’ family and other visitors even in stressful situations.

Secondly, I would like to consider the set of responsibilities towards other members of the health care establishment team. These requirements are based on the negative example of the cases 2 and 3. In order to reach the efficient results when providing the health care services, the employees of the healthcare establishments and the physicians, in particular, are expected to work in collaboration with other members of medical staff with respect because the proper functioning of hospitals implies team work.

The last set of responsibilities implies upholding the standards of the profession. These standards should be applied in the third case as they imply the behaviour in a professional and appropriate manner.

Each healthcare establishment has its unique organizational culture (constellation of organizational values, which are introduced in organizational mission, its structure, strategy and personnel policy), which should be followed by all its employees due to the fact that organisational culture plays significant role in creation of positive healthcare establishment image and reputation. OC can be represented in different ways - beginning from the employees’ uniform to the furniture in the wards and including as well the way of communication and acting with the patients, colleagues, supervisors and subordinates.

In order to employ the professionals only and to keep the organisational behaviour and culture on the highest level, I would like to make the following recommendations for the healthcare establishments’ human resource centres and for the healthcare sector:

• To create the moral code common for all medical personnel at all levels of the professional development;
• To make regular trainings and to improve coaching programs for professionals in the healthcare. That will help to improve the service quality and communication with patients and also these trainings would be directed into enhancement of the organisational behaviour;
• To improve the penalty measures for those physicians who break down the rules of the healthcare branch, or who disrupt the team work and bring the negative attitude into the corporative climate.
• To organise competition for the job opportunities in the company – this would make the vacancy more desired and precious.
• To include the corporative rules observance into the requirements for the designee.

If all above listed recommendations are taken in consideration and added to the existing moral code for the physicians, this would improve the whole image of the system.

Finally, in order to reach the new qualitative level of the healthcare services and attitude towards the patients, the following issues should be taken in account:

• Focusing attention on the personnel of the particular healthcare establishment and finding the solutions for employees professional development and advanced training;
• Clarifying the importance of team work in order to achieve the organisational goals;
• High requirement for the leaders (supervisors, professors and  senior personnel) - to show on their example the positive impact of correct behaviour on the organisational culture;
• Encouraging the view that positive corporative climate inside the establishment affects positive attitude from the patients and potential patients.
• Understanding that organisational culture is core basis of the particular establishment competitive advantages, capacity, longevity and effectiveness of its work;
• Making the positive image of the particular establishment and promotion of its good and reliable name via organisational culture development and support (Duff, 2004).