Professional ethics
Professional ethics encompass the personal and corporate standards of behavior expected of professionals.[1]
Not to be confused with Professional Ethics (journal).
The word professionalism originally applied to vows of a religious order. By no later than the year 1675, the term had seen secular application and was applied to the three learned professions: divinity, law, and medicine.[2] The term professionalism was also used for the military profession around this same time.
Professionals and those working in acknowledged professions exercise specialist knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed "professional ethics".[3]
One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is the Hippocratic oath to which medical doctors still adhere to this day.
Components[edit]
Some professional organizations may define their ethical approach in terms of a number of discrete components.[4] Typically these include honesty, trustworthiness, transparency, accountability, confidentiality, objectivity, respect, obedience to the law, and loyalty.
Statutory regulation[edit]
In many countries there is some statutory regulation of professional ethical standards such as the statutory bodies that regulate nursing and midwifery in England and Wales.[7] Failure to comply with these standards can thus become a matter for the courts.