Professionalism in health care is a term used to justify a professional’s behavior when working and attending events that represent the field. People recognize professionalism through observation. The health care profession expects its professionals to maintain important values that have positive impacts on the medical field, as viewed by patients and other professionals. Health care professionals should be ethical, compassionate and fully committed to providing patient care.

Characteristics

Personal differences such as race, religion and gender are not to impact the quality of care delivered to the patients of health care providers. Health care professionals demonstrate professionalism through meeting moral, confidentiality and ethical standards. Professional health care providers are responsible for assuring that one another conduct business professionally and uphold health care education standards.

Importance

All the characteristics of health care professionalism are important to patients, health care organizations and health care professionals as a whole. Health care professionals that demonstrate professionalism successfully are more likely to provide high-quality patient care.

Impact

The experiences patients have while under a professional health care provider’s care determines whether or not the quality of care meets expectations. High-quality health care keeps patients coming back when the need for care arises in the future. Demonstrated professionalism also gives the medical field and its providers a positive reputation.