What Is Independence In Healthcare

In the teaching, medical and the legal profession, the term independence is used in the context of autonomy. For physicians, the healthcare sector is highly regulated, with the government imposing several limitations. Amongst many other requirements, doctors are required to use electronic health record (EHR) otherwise they get penalized with reduced reimbursements or get audited by the government. Many doctors argue that this process is time-consuming, takes time away from patient face-to-face interaction, and leads to inefficient and less fulfilling work content. Thus, many believe independence would be not electing insurance or Medicare, for instance, believing it would help improve the quality of service. The World Medical Association (WMA),
whose prime objective is to promote ethical standards amongst physicians, has adopted principles that promote physician's independence and professional freedom. For the teaching profession, the idea of professional independence refers to the independence of teachers to make an autonomous decision as to what they teach their students and how they teach them. Proponents of greater teaching independence argue that the efforts of enforcing a select teaching technique with increased oversight or stringent curriculum requirements result in lower job satisfaction. In addition, they argue that teachers are in the best position of knowing what is best for their students and they should be given the liberty to design the structure of their lessons and to choose the instructional strategy. Without the independence, teachers believe their instructional creativity is stifled and it would eventually result in higher job dissatisfaction and weaker student performance.

The legal profession is vastly self-governing. In the legal profession, there is an exclusive close connection between the government laws and the profession. Lawyer independence is the right that public has to be able to gain legal advice from a lawyer whose duty is to no one but the client. It guarantees that the client could confide to the lawyer and expect legal assistance without the fear of being reprimanded by the government or other related parties. The self-governance also helps maintain lawyers independence from government control. However, like most other professions, every lawyer is responsible for the observance of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

In my opinion, clergy’s do not have an independence problem, there is no law prohibiting the free exercise of a religion. Thus, the issue of independence does not affect the performance of their duties.