Question: Please summarize the components that make up a…

Question:

1. Please summarize the components that make up a professional as laid out in the article under parts A-E. Summarize each section from A to E in 1 to 2 sentences each.

 

1. A. Professionals Provide a Socially Important Service

Optometrists, like Lawyers, Doctors, Foresters, and other groups labelled as “professionals,” perform tasks that are considered socially valuable. That is, the services rendered by the profession as a group are valuable not just to individuals, but to society as a whole. It is of general social benefit to have a system for the reliable provision of ocular health, just as it is of general social benefit to have a functional legal system. Modern highspeed transportation would be impossible without the services of engineers. And large-scale financial services would be impossible without accountants.

 

1. B. Professionals Have an Esoteric, Theoretical Knowledge Base

Professionals have a complex knowledge base and set of skills. Their knowledge is typically esoteric and theoretical (that is, it usually does not consist of facts that a lay-person could easily look up in a book, for example). The application of professional knowledge typically requires considerable judgment, and the tasks carried out by professionals are not usually the kinds of tasks that could be mechanized. The principles of legal reasoning, for example, can only be learned through years of study and practical experience. The same is clearly true of the principles of ocular health. Clinical judgment, based on theoretical knowledge and practical experience, is central to the practice of Optometry. Professionals typically also have skills that an amateur could not easily master. For example, if I had the time and interest I could learn to repair my own car; I could not as easily learn to diagnose defects in my own vision.

 

1. C. Professionals Have Extensive Formal and Practical Training

Professional training typically involves at least several years of university training. And before professional practice is allowed to begin, there is often also a period of supervised practice. Physicians, for example, spend several years as Interns and Residents. Lawyers spend a year “articling.” Before being allowed to practice, professionals typically also undergo special testing (Bar Exams for lawyers, for example, or the examinations required by the College of Optometrists) to demonstrate their competency. Professionals are typically also expected to undergo continuing education and updating of their knowledge, throughout their professional careers.

 

1.  D. Professionals are Self Regulating

Society typically allows professions to regulate themselves. That is, all professions are governed by associations or colleges (consisting of members of the profession) that regulate admission to the profession (through registration or the issuing of licences), and enforce both technical standards and ethical standards among their membership. These associations are typically provincially chartered bodies with considerable legal power (for example, the College of Optometrists of Ontario is granted authority, under Ontario’s Regulated Health Professions Act and Optometry Act, to regulate the practice of Optometry in Ontario). For example, professional regulators have the power to grant licences to practice and the right to use professional titles. This power gives these groups significant control over their particular field of practice. This means that it is usually illegal for non-members to offer the same services as those offered by members of the profession. Anybody, for example, may call themselves a philosopher and offer to solve philosophical problems; but it is illegal to call yourself an optometrist or to offer optometric services if you are not registered to do so. Professional regulators also have the responsibility to develop the technical and ethical standards that their members must meet, and are empowered by law to discipline their members in various ways if professional behaviour falls below the acceptable minimum established by the profession.

 

1.  E. Professionals Acknowledge a Special Responsibility to the Public

Professionals are typically seen as having a special responsibility not just to their particular employers or clients or patients, but also to society as a whole. This is seen, for example, in the fact that many professional codes of ethics indicate that a professional’s first duty is to “the public good” or “the health and safety of the public” or some such. In practice, the obligation to promote the public interest is typically borne by professional associations and regulatory bodies; the means by which individual professionals serve the public good is through dedicated service to their own patients or clients. This special obligation to the public is sometimes described as being owed to the public as part of a “contract” with society. Individual professionals often enjoy considerable social prestige, significant financial rewards, and a high degree of autonomy in their work. And, as mentioned above, professionals as a group are given the privilege of selfregulation. In return, professionals are said to owe a high degree of loyalty to the society that grants these privileges. Note that this “contract” need not take the form of a formal, written document (although some aspects of the profession will typically be legislated – see, for example, Ontario’s Regulated Health Professions Act). But, ethically speaking, it is better to think of this “contract” as an unspoken understanding, a description of what each of the two parties is expected to contribute, and what each can reasonably expect to gain.

 

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