The Key to Professionalism
By Patty Seitz, CMT, AHDI-F

"No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation." ~~ Horace, Ancient Roman Poet. 65BC-8BC

When I decided to write an article about professionalism, I wanted to take a different tack. I did not want this to be an "in my opinion" piece, but rather gather some facts about what makes a profession a profession—and what makes us, the medical transcriptionist, a professional? I read several articles given to me by a friend who is taking a doctorate-level class on ethics.  I also researched the internet to see if what I found fit with what I have always perceived to be professionalism. 

For many years, sociologists have studied and developed components that determine if a group is a profession or an occupation.  There are structural components and attitudinal components.¹ 

The structural components include the following:
1. A full-time occupation: principle source of income.
2. Training/education.
3. Professional association.
4. Code of ethics.
5. Professional autonomy: the professional association creates efforts to exclude the unqualified and provide the legal right to practice.

The attitudinal components include the following:
1. Professional organization as a major reference: meetings, journals, using colleagues formally and informally as a major source of ideas and judgments.
2. Belief in public service: the work benefits the public and the practitioner.
3. Belief in self-regulation: fellow professionals are the best qualified to judge the work of the profession.
4. Sense of calling to the field.
5. Autonomy: making independent decisions without external pressures from those outside the profession.

Becoming a professional involves specialized education, credentials, continuing education and involving yourself in professional associations. With that comes responsibilities of developing standards (education, certification), advancing the profession (professional association), having the final say about the accuracy of our profession (MTs helping/directing MTs), protection against stereotyping (we are medical transcriptionists, not typists).² 

If we as a group follow the above, there is no question we can continue to elevate our position in the healthcare environment.  The first step to becoming a professional is believing you are a professional. There are many, many professions both in and outside the medical arena, and there isn't one of them that does not follow the above criteria.  Despite that, we know there are "unprofessionals" within any field.  Not every lawyer is ethical, not every physician graduated at the top of his class, not every certified home builder builds a high-quality home—I could go on, but I think you get the point.

In this day and age, just getting by has become acceptable even at the professional level, but it creates an attitude of amateurs.  Which do you want to be?

A professional learns every aspect of the job—an amateur skips the learning process if at all possible; a professional looks for mistakes or errors before the final product is complete—an amateur ignores or hides mistakes; a professional is ready and willing to tackle the difficult projects—an amateur tries to get out of difficult work; a professional produces above the expected—an amateur does just enough to get by; a professional is optimistic; an amateur always expects the worst.³

Of course we all have days when we feel burned out, maybe not putting our best out there, skipping that difficult dictation or deciding to not attend tomorrow's meeting.  That does not make you an amateur or unprofessional.  It is the overall attitude, commitment, code of ethics that makes the difference. Caring, communication, listening, patience, attitudes towards ourselves are all true marks of professionalism.⁴

If we want to be treated and accepted as professionals, we have to begin by accepting ourselves as professionals!  If we act like amateurs, we will be treated like amateurs.  You are not going to be asked if you belong to a professional association or if you are credentialed.  You have to take the initiative and ask the hard questions.  If a higher rate is not paid for the RMT or CMT, ask why not or if they would consider changing the policy.  There are some companies, hospitals, etc., who are paying for credentialing, and perhaps that is not because they demand it but because WE demand it.  Just imagine what would happen to our profession if 100,000 of us became certified with the RMT or CMT!  What kind of message do you think that would send to employers and other healthcare professionals? 

The next time you are reading the want ads in the various journals or newspapers, take a look at the coding jobs and the medical records director jobs.  Neither of those positions requires certification, yet what do the majority of those ads say? Prefer CCS certification; CTR required; RHIA or RHIT required; HIM degree required.  Most, if not all, students who graduate in those fields of practice get their certification and have done so for well over 30 years now. They have also developed various levels of certification, not just one.  Could that be why those positions require or at the least prefer some type of certification? 

Now look at the MT positions.  In viewing several ads, I found 1 that stated they would accept less years of experience if certified. Most of them just stated a specific amount of experience but nothing about education or credentials. When the CMT was developed for MTs back in the early 1980s, most took the position of waiting to see "what happens" rather than getting the credential and making it a natural process of the requirement for entering the field.  Instead of us taking the reigns and evolving the profession, we expected the employer to do that for us.  I think it is pretty obvious that road took us in a completely different direction than other HIM professions.  We projected the amateur rather than the professional.

I get discouraged sometimes thinking it is too late for us—that we are relegated to being treated as nothing more than typists.  But then I realize that change can happen at any time, that it is never too late to take a new direction.  I look at the above criteria for what separates an occupation from a profession, and it seems clear that we do indeed fit the latter category. 

"The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get."  Anonymous

Let's protect the profession by protecting each other!


                    
1 History of Professions—Where Did We Come From? Audiology Class Lecture by Gloria Garner, Aud
2 http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/tutorials/professionalism/IC.html
3 http://www.tipsforsuccess.org/professionalism.htm
4 JAVMA, Vol 200. No.6, March 15, 1992 – The Human Side of Veterinary Medicine.