Professionalism

"This was the final assignment I had to submit in the subject Physician Patient Relationship .I am a medical student.So what is the importance of professionalism that we were asked to write an assignment on it.This assignment was the final assignment we had to submit as a final requirement.So, I am going to talk about professionalism and talk a little about how physicians can be professional too."

Reflection paper on professionalism

All people may have different views on what professionalism exactly is. However, it does not have an abstract definition. Does professionalism simply means getting deeply involved with our profession to earn our living? Well, I think it is very odd to define professionalism in that way .I believe that professionalism is actually the ability to do our work competently, confidently and ethically while we are in a certain profession. Professionalism means being committed to our job and being able to fulfil the needs of our client. But these are not the only things that comply to be a real professional. There are a lot of things one needs to consider. Professionalism is something which requires lots of patience, hard work and determination. Let’s move one more with the topic.

There are various things one needs to embrace to become a professional. Artists, engineers, singers, teachers, doctors, professors, accountants, advertisers, managers etc. are the different professions. What are the things one needs to follow in order to call it “being professional”? At first one needs to learn how to be co-operative with the fellow colleagues. When we are at our workplace we need to follow the rules of that place. We should be willing to learn new things so that we could avoid making mistakes. All professions are equally difficult, so let the person have any position in the same job, we should be able to respect each and every one of them and their work. So what are other things that can lead to the real professionalism?

Respecting our own profession is an essence of professionalism. We should be able to love what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. That’s the reason why so many people are not professionals today. Since a lot of people are involved in professions they don’t like, they seem to forget about professionalism which is actually very important. A person should have enough knowledge to be a professional. He should be able to tackle problems logically and ethically. Of course, being humans we tend to make mistakes. But every time we make a mistake we should be able to promise to ourselves that we would not repeat them again. We should be able to learn new things every day. We know that things are not always the same, so sometimes complicated matters can come up in the workplace. We should accept those matters and solve them. We should never let personal feelings get involved in what we do. However, that doesn’t also mean that we are supposed to be stern and arrogant. Since, we are humans, we should know the value of ethics. Sometimes, we may get scolded by our boss. But those things should not be taken as harsh words, instead as blessings so that we could learn more. We need to be really committed to our work as well. Suppose we don’t like taking extra shifts just because we want to rest at home, at that time we’re not called a professional. A professional is someone who is able to give up a lot of things just to make his profession extra worthy. Similar, we need to possess skills and tactics to be called a professional. Professionalism is actually a discipline. You need to follow it. To be called a professional, we may have to deal with extra-pressures, work more, dedicate and restrict ourselves from things we really love to do, but finally its’ worth it.

Since, we are going to be doctors let me move on with how a doctor can be a professional. At first we need to have years of practice and hard work. If we do not have the skills we cannot be doctors as it deals with human lives. The lives of humans are on our hands and we’re directly dealing with them. A slight error can lead to the loss of a human’s life. It is a sensitive issue we are dealing with. We cannot just call ourselves professional after we’ve finished with MD but there are more things to learn. That’s why people go for post graduations. When we are doctors, we should strictly follow ethical issues. It is not professional if we charge a patient high against our ethics. Similarly, if we want to be professionals, we can’t expect to get a life like those of others. We should be able to give up our sleep, thirst and hunger. However, that doesn’t mean that we need to overlook ourselves. It simply means, we should be able to give up things at times, because they worth it. Just remember that we skipped a meal one day but we saved the life of a patient. Similarly, we should be willing to learn more from our senior doctors as they have a lot of experiences. Being physicians we might see deaths of many individuals. But we also know that we did the best we could. So, at that moment we should be able to be strong and console the patient’s relatives and friends. We should be able to hide our pain and make them strong instead. That is the reason we study subjects like physician patient relationship in our course, so that we would be able to learn how to deal with patients .We should try to avoid clash with our colleagues as well. Of course, our opinions may be different but we need to realize that now we’re discussing on a professional level. Sometimes, doctor –patient relationship may cross the limit. But we need to remember that a patient falling for his physician is not an uncommon thing. However, we need to prevent ourselves from falling into those issues. A physical relationship between a patient and a doctor is strictly prohibited.

Professionalism means respecting our profession. Doing unethical and illegitimate things is like making fun of our profession and declaring ourselves as being an unprofessional. If we want to be a candid physician we need to be able to understand the meaning of professionalism. Being a doctor we should know that our patients are emotionally vulnerable, so we should be able to guide them in a very professional and ethical manner. Professionalism means trying to make the work we do somewhat like ‘perfect’ without any flaws. When we are professionals we are capable of satisfying the needs of those who really wants us. However, it doesn’t mean that we can satisfy each and every one of them, as all of us are different. Our professions as physicians are venerated by the people. We should be able to protect that purity of our profession by understanding the essence of professionalism.  This does not just apply to the medical field but all other professions as well.

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