What Is Medical Professionalism?

Medical professionalism has three essential components: knowledge and technical skills, attitudes, and ethical behaviors. A competent medical professional needs to meet these three basic requirements. Like other professionals in the health care system, medical laboratorians must have completed education and training, and obtained their professional degrees, before they can start working in laboratories. During their work and careers, they must meet the standards of their profession. Medical laboratorians should be competent in knowledge and techniques. They should have excellent practical and analytical skills, and can perform their work with accuracy and efficiency. To maintain their competency and to keep up with new developments and technologies, medical laboratorians should be life-long learners.
Working in a laboratory can be stressful, so it is important that the laboratorians are calm, hardworking, and always have a positive attitude. Responsibility and accountability are critical attitudes that a medical laboratorian should uphold. The behaviors of medical laboratorians must follow strict codes of conduct and obey ethical practice. This is especially critical for healthcare professionals, because their actions directly affect human health. Following moral obligations, like integrity, honesty, and altruism should be always the top priority. Although medical laboratorians spend most of their time on performing testes and they often do not interact with patients directly, interpersonal skills are still essential. Laboratorians communicate with laboratory fellows and other health professionals, train new employees, write reports and protocols, and give presentations at meetings. To fulfill these duties successfully, medical laboratorians need to be effective and concise speakers and