Professionalism in Healthcare – Key Concepts, Ethics, and Communication
Skills for Medical and Allied Health Students
1. externship: A cooperative or workplace experience or period of training for a
student that is provided by the student's educational facility
2. clinic: A facility providing medical care on an outpatient basis. Many clinics
have a specialty, such as ongoing care for diabetes or cancer
3. regulated Profession: A field legally restricted to practitioners with a specific
professional qualification and/or provincial or territorial registration
4. Administrative Health Professional(AHP): A graduate from an accredited
health office administration program who assumes administrative,
communication, and/or clinical responsibilities in a health-care setting.
5. Licensure: A legal document, obtained after passing written and clinical
examinations, that is required for health-care practitioners in regulated fields
6. preceptor: A mentor who guides and supervises a student throughout a
workplace experience.
7. right: A moral, legal, cultural, or traditional claim
8. sick role: A particular social role that an ill person adopts, which involves
giving up normal responsibilities and accepting care. May sometimes involve
uncharacteristically passive behaviour
9. client: A person seeking or receiving health care; synonymous with patient,
but suggests a more active role
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, 10. Medical Office Assistant (MOA): A person who handles primarily
administrative (Medical Office Administrator) responsibilities but also some
clinical duties in a health office (title varies)
11. medical assistant: A person who is trained to assist a physician with various
clinical tests, examinations, and procedures
12. behaviour: A person's discernible responses and actions
13. autonomy: A person's right to self-determination. In health care it refers to a
patient's/client's right to make his own decisions without coercion-decisions for
treatment for example, based on fact and going fully informed of all treatment
options 14. role: A position in life that carries expectations of responsibilities
and of appropriate behaviour
15. code of ethics_: A set of guidelines for ethical conduct
16. wellness: A state of physical and emotional well-being, broadly considered
health According to one definition "a relative state in which one is able to
function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express
the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one
is living
17. postpartum: After delivery
18. tolerance: Allowing people to have their own beliefs, opinions and way of
doing things
19 ALS_ (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis): Also known as amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease. This is a progressive disease affecting the nerves
that are responsible for muscle stimulation. There is no known cure.
20. attribute: An inborn personal quality or characteristic
21. ward clerk: An individual who manages the administrative and communication
needs of a client care unit. The title is being replaced with clinical secretary or
communications coordinator.
22. allied health care: Any duty or profession that supports primary health-care
professionals, such as physicians, in delivering health-care services (i.e. nurse
practioners or midwives)
2/5
Skills for Medical and Allied Health Students
1. externship: A cooperative or workplace experience or period of training for a
student that is provided by the student's educational facility
2. clinic: A facility providing medical care on an outpatient basis. Many clinics
have a specialty, such as ongoing care for diabetes or cancer
3. regulated Profession: A field legally restricted to practitioners with a specific
professional qualification and/or provincial or territorial registration
4. Administrative Health Professional(AHP): A graduate from an accredited
health office administration program who assumes administrative,
communication, and/or clinical responsibilities in a health-care setting.
5. Licensure: A legal document, obtained after passing written and clinical
examinations, that is required for health-care practitioners in regulated fields
6. preceptor: A mentor who guides and supervises a student throughout a
workplace experience.
7. right: A moral, legal, cultural, or traditional claim
8. sick role: A particular social role that an ill person adopts, which involves
giving up normal responsibilities and accepting care. May sometimes involve
uncharacteristically passive behaviour
9. client: A person seeking or receiving health care; synonymous with patient,
but suggests a more active role
1/5
, 10. Medical Office Assistant (MOA): A person who handles primarily
administrative (Medical Office Administrator) responsibilities but also some
clinical duties in a health office (title varies)
11. medical assistant: A person who is trained to assist a physician with various
clinical tests, examinations, and procedures
12. behaviour: A person's discernible responses and actions
13. autonomy: A person's right to self-determination. In health care it refers to a
patient's/client's right to make his own decisions without coercion-decisions for
treatment for example, based on fact and going fully informed of all treatment
options 14. role: A position in life that carries expectations of responsibilities
and of appropriate behaviour
15. code of ethics_: A set of guidelines for ethical conduct
16. wellness: A state of physical and emotional well-being, broadly considered
health According to one definition "a relative state in which one is able to
function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express
the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one
is living
17. postpartum: After delivery
18. tolerance: Allowing people to have their own beliefs, opinions and way of
doing things
19 ALS_ (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis): Also known as amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease. This is a progressive disease affecting the nerves
that are responsible for muscle stimulation. There is no known cure.
20. attribute: An inborn personal quality or characteristic
21. ward clerk: An individual who manages the administrative and communication
needs of a client care unit. The title is being replaced with clinical secretary or
communications coordinator.
22. allied health care: Any duty or profession that supports primary health-care
professionals, such as physicians, in delivering health-care services (i.e. nurse
practioners or midwives)
2/5
