6. Introduction to Ethics, Professionalism and Diversity
Learning Objectives
- Examine different ethical theories and the importance of ethics in healthcare.
- Assess the importance of patient confidentiality in healthcare settings.
- Investigate why consent in healthcare is required.
- Assess why professionalism is important for those that work in all healthcare settings.
- Analyze how healthcare professionals approach challenging situations when working alone and when working together.
- Examine the components of professional conduct and the importance of interprofessional collaborative practice.
- History of multiculturalism in Canada
- Define ethnicity and culture and its importance in Canada and the Canadian Healthcare system.
- Recognizing how cultural competence and cultural safety are assimilated into Canadian Healthcare.
Chapter Overview
Working in the medical field it is imperative that you value and demonstrate a high level of ethical integrity, professionalism and regard for diverse cultures. Knowledge of ethics and an understanding of how you integrate ethical values into your practice are fundamental. Knowledge of ethical integrity and an understanding of how it is an integral part of your being, that you must stand by when working with patients in healthcare. Patients rely on healthcare workers to provide confidentiality and to act with respect for others. Professionalism means conducting yourself with responsibility and integrity in the work place. Ethical integrity and professionalism hold those working in the medical field to a high standard whereby treating those you encounter with competence, honesty, understanding and acceptance. In addition, healthcare workers must deliver culturally competent care by acknowledging the importance of culture and its impact on care. Having cultural knowledge and being open to others will allow you to meet culturally unique needs.
Modules 6.1 (Ethics) and 6.2 (Professionalism) of this chapter were cloned from Chapters 5 & 6, respectively, of Katherine Greene and Andrea Nelson’s Career Cornerstones: Establishing a Foundation for a Career in Healthcare (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0). The resulting modules have been lightly edited in order to work with the Communication in Canadian Healthcare course at Keyano College. These edits by Catharine Szpak at Keyano College include reformatting the original text as needed, adding content from other resources, replacing images and figures, and including original writing to introduce Canadian legislation, policies, and other information for the Canadian healthcare context. Module 6.3 (Diversity) by Catharine Szpak, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence, except where otherwise noted.
