THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSION

• Is a special calling, a service characterized by a trusting and caring relationship which cannot be measured in monetary terms

• The relationship is a covenant – a trusted caring service between a healthcare giver who offers help and a dependent patient who needs and receives it.

A sick individual becomes a patient if1. He admits that he is sick

2. That he can no longer take care of himself and

3. So, he asks for help or aid

Qualities and/or Characteristics of Effective Health Care Providers

• Applies to any distinctive feature or characteristic of an individual

• As applied to HCP, they are professional’s proficiencies that conform to client’s or patient’s expectation, measured through the satisfaction of client’s needs, and treat them with integrity, respect, and courtesy.

• May refer, likewise, to desirable personal attributes or traits that HCPs may possess.

1. self-respect • Proper regard for the dignity of one’s

character or position, with appreciation or recognition of its obligation of worthy conduct

Virtues of the Health Care Professional

Virtues• Are traits of character or habits of

disposition to think and act in ways that are good; to do what is morally right.

• The manner healthcare is delivered often depends on the kind of person the healthcare professional is. To transcend mere duty, one must be virtuous.

• Theological Virtues• Faith, hope and charity

• Cardinal Virtues• Prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude

• Moral Acquired Virtues• Fidelity, honesty, humility, compassion, justice,

courage and prayerfulness

1. Fidelity• Is faithfulness to trust and promise• In health care, it is fulfilling the promise of

the healthcare professional to be a patient advocate to keep the patient’s best interest first in mind; to intend one’s good (benevolence); providing competent care; avoiding conflicts of interests

2. Honesty• Is both truthfulness and integrity

is the good faith intent to convey the truth, both in words and conduct, to others, as best one knows it. It is to avoid communicating wrong or incomplete information likely to mislead or to deceive

• In healthcare, it involves telling the patient and his family, the truth about an illness, its nature, prognosis, the justification, benefits and burdens of alternative actions.

• Integrity is being true to oneself or wholeness. It is the congruence between one’s beliefs, words and actions. It is making choices in line with one’s values

3. Humility• Is recognizing one’s capabilities and

limitations. It is accepting deserved praise graciously and denying undeserved praise.

• In healthcare, it is continuously updating one’s knowledge; recognizing the patient as one who knows and should decide what is best for one; accepting that other colleagues may know better should be asked for help

4. Compassion• Is feeling for the loss/suffering of another

with an attempt beyond obligation to help or avoid that loss/suffering. It is self-sacrifice, voluntarily given for the benefit of another whose needs are greater.

• In healthcare, it involves the health professional adjusting management to the peculiarities of the patient’s life story.

5. Justice• Is the constant will to give another his due.

It is adjusting what is owed to the specific needs of the person even if those needs do not strictly fit what is owed.

• In healthcare, it involves offering needed treatments and interventions to a smoker despite believing he is at fault for causing his condition. It is charging the poor less than the usual professional fee.

6. Courage• Is doing what is right without undue fear. It

is resoluteness. It is being true to one’s calling despite the risk of being wrong or private guilt. It relates to heroism.

• In healthcare, it involves the parties making a medical decision despite the risk of being wrong. The patient undergoes diagnostic studies knowing there will be pain; the healthcare professional fights for patient’s rights.

7. Prayerfulness• Inclines one to seek God’s help in

everything one does. Prayer provides consolation, encouragement and strength.

Conclusion:

Without virtue, the delivery of healthcare is only a business contract. With its presence, it becomes a covenant of trust.