The Role Of Professionalism In Healthcare

a) What is Professionalism? (250 words)

Professionalism is demonstrated by individuals during their working lives and is defined by the presumed ‘competence or skill expected of a professional’ (Oxford University Press, 2017). Healthcare professionals show this competence the second they put on their uniform.

However, healthcare professionals adhere towards a set of defined standards. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) states that this is a key aspect in professionalism along with having great decision-making skills grounded on solid evidence; supporting this with clinical reasoning. Furthermore, demonstrating management skills of problematic information and taking into consideration of potential situations - involving complicated

(750 words)

The HCPC standards of conduct performance and ethics (SCPE) briefly mentioned in part a) set a broad expectation of the type of behaviours health professionals require (HCPC, 2016). Any complaints made by the service user or members of staff about treatment/ healthcare professionals will be compared to the SCPE to allow the HCPC to check if they were treated with the required standards. Thus, suitable disciplinary action can be given; preventing the public being at risk.

Standard 5 of the SCPE states that a health professional must respect the confidentiality of a service user’s information. Furthermore, to disclose this information the physiotherapist must have permission from the service user and if the law allows. Reasons to disclose information must be in the service user’s best interests or if it will protect the public. Patients coming to see physiotherapists have an expectation that the information they present will be confidential and keeping to this allows trust to be created between physiotherapist and patient (UK Essays, 2013). Confidentiality must be maintained so that standard 5 is met of the SCPE allowing for the best possible treatment to be

In terms of paper records they should be filed and stored in a lockable cabinet ( Health & Care Professions Council, 2017). However, an increasing amount of patient records are being held on electronic based systems and patient information is more accessible than ever. A physiotherapist should follow their employer’s policies for keeping electronic records safe. For example, making sure to log out of the system after use as somebody else could use their account to access confidential data. Even though it wasn’t the physiotherapist who accessed the data they can still be liable for disciplinary action (potentially losing their job) as they left confidential information unsecure (Cole,