Professional Aspects of Care



Professional Aspects of Care

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss the boundaries that pose limits in a patient-physician therapeutic relationship within the health care setting. Mainly the focus of this paper is on the scenario of patient who wants to give a gift to the doctor as a sign of thank you gesture for taking care of him. Further, it analyses the legal consideration regarding receiving gift from a patient and it also examines the ethical implication of such gestures in the UK health care code of ethics of medical association.

Boundary determines the limitations of suitable manners by a qualified professional towards his customers. When the boundaries are developed, a healthcare physician makes a safe space for the healing connection to take place. There are some concerned issues regarding the boundaries within the profession between health care providers and patients. Sometimes negative outcomes are seen when the set boundaries are transgressed (Capozzi & Rhodes, 2004). “Boundary question” has been paid less attention relatively, outside this perspective, but many other connections raise concerns about boundaries as well. Healthcare providers may need assistance in the matters to decide how to avoid intimate interaction with the patients, which may be not correct ethically as well as legally.

Discussion

Professionalism in Health Care

The concept of boundary in the relations within the healthcare setting is based in the notion of a 'profession'. However, many have retrieved several meanings of this notion in the sociological and medical literature, while there is general consensus about one of the defined features of professionals and professions (Nadelson, & Notman, 2002).



Implication for Physicians

Professionalism is referred to as a foundation of medical system's contract with the society. It demands that the patient's interest must be placed above all demands of the physicians, setting and maintaining standards of integrity and competence. They also offer competent care solutions to the patients. Both profession and society shall understand the responsibilities and principles of medical professionalism. Public trust in health care providers is highly essential to this contract, which depends on the integrity of both individual physicians and the whole profession.

Accepting Gifts from Patients

Whether to accept gifts from patients or not has become a debatable topic now, not only in UK but in other societies as well. Below is the discussion regarding the theories about the patient and physician relationship and the ethical and legal implications that surround this relationship.

Border crossings

The power differential inherent in the physician-patient relationship is significant, so it is important that boundaries be set to protect patients. Patients entrust their welfare to the physician, who receives payment for service rendered. The limits of the fiduciary relationship are usually defined in terms of professional boundaries, which balance the patient's benefits with the doctor's power. Written guidelines define the “parameters of professional conduct in the practice of psychotherapy by physicians. Boundary violations differ from boundary crossings, in that crossings are minor and are not exploitative, whereas boundary violations are damaging.

Some boundary transgressions are clearly unethical while others are ...