2. • Is a special calling, a service
characterized by a trusting and caring
relationship which cannot be measured in
monetary terms
• The relationship is a covenant – a trusted
caring service between a healthcare giver
who offers help and a dependent patient
who needs and receives it.
3. A sick individual becomes a patient if
1. He admits that he is sick
2. That he can no longer take care of himself
and
3. So, he asks for help or aid
4. Qualities and/or Characteristics of
Effective Health Care Providers
• Applies to any distinctive feature or
characteristic of an individual
• As applied to HCP, they are professional’s
proficiencies that conform to client’s or
patient’s expectation, measured through
the satisfaction of client’s needs, and treat
them with integrity, respect, and courtesy.
• May refer, likewise, to desirable personal
attributes or traits that HCPs may possess.
5. 1. self-respect
• Proper regard for the dignity of one’s
character or position, with appreciation or
recognition of its obligation of worthy
conduct
6. Virtues of the Health Care
Professional
Virtues
• Are traits of character or habits of
disposition to think and act in ways that are
good; to do what is morally right.
• The manner healthcare is delivered often
depends on the kind of person the healthcare
professional is. To transcend mere duty, one
must be virtuous.
7. • Theological Virtues
• Faith, hope and charity
• Cardinal Virtues
• Prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude
• Moral Acquired Virtues
• Fidelity, honesty, humility, compassion, justice,
courage and prayerfulness
8. 1. Fidelity
• Is faithfulness to trust and promise
• In health care, it is fulfilling the promise of
the healthcare professional to be a patient
advocate to keep the patient’s best interest
first in mind; to intend one’s good
(benevolence); providing competent care;
avoiding conflicts of interests
9. 2. Honesty
• Is both truthfulness and integrity
is the good faith intent to convey the truth,
both in words and conduct, to others, as
best one knows it. It is to avoid
communicating wrong or incomplete
information likely to mislead or to deceive
10. • In healthcare, it involves telling the patient
and his family, the truth about an illness, its
nature, prognosis, the justification, benefits
and burdens of alternative actions.
• Integrity is being true to oneself or
wholeness. It is the congruence between
one’s beliefs, words and actions. It is
making choices in line with one’s values
11. 3. Humility
• Is recognizing one’s capabilities and
limitations. It is accepting deserved praise
graciously and denying undeserved praise.
• In healthcare, it is continuously updating
one’s knowledge; recognizing the patient as
one who knows and should decide what is
best for one; accepting that other colleagues
may know better should be asked for help
12. 4. Compassion
• Is feeling for the loss/suffering of another
with an attempt beyond obligation to help
or avoid that loss/suffering. It is self-
sacrifice, voluntarily given for the benefit of
another whose needs are greater.
• In healthcare, it involves the health
professional adjusting management to the
peculiarities of the patient’s life story.
13. 5. Justice
• Is the constant will to give another his due.
It is adjusting what is owed to the specific
needs of the person even if those needs do
not strictly fit what is owed.
• In healthcare, it involves offering needed
treatments and interventions to a smoker
despite believing he is at fault for causing
his condition. It is charging the poor less
than the usual professional fee.
14. 6. Courage
• Is doing what is right without undue fear. It
is resoluteness. It is being true to one’s
calling despite the risk of being wrong or
private guilt. It relates to heroism.
• In healthcare, it involves the parties making
a medical decision despite the risk of being
wrong. The patient undergoes diagnostic
studies knowing there will be pain; the
healthcare professional fights for patient’s
rights.
15. 7. Prayerfulness
• Inclines one to seek God’s help in
everything one does. Prayer provides
consolation, encouragement and strength.
16. Conclusion:
Without virtue, the delivery of healthcare
is only a business contract. With its
presence, it becomes a covenant of trust.
