CHARACTER   COMPETENCE    CONDUCT
The Three "Cs" of Professionalism

What is a professional? What is a health care professional? What distinguishes a practitioner from a professional? Regulated health professionals in Ontario have clear definitions with defined rules of what constitutes professional misconduct. A test for regulation readiness and worthiness by a health regulatory college includes now a "character" review and may involve a scan (of up to five past years) of an applicant's social media engagement.

 

The National AT body had asked the independent regional AT associations to develop their own ethics and code of conduct to handle the majority of any complaints locally, turning to national or to the respective health regulatory college for the most severe conduct breaches. The OATA ethical and professional conduct requirements meet the standards set for our peer rehabilitation professionals.  The review of peer conduct rules makes it very clear what the expectations are for health care professionals.  The rules and expectations revolve around three "Cs": Character, Competence and Conduct.

 

While establishing an Ontario ethics and conduct infrastructure and recruiting committee members, the OATA had legal counsel review a code of conduct.  A well-respected RHPA lawyer with expertise in ethics and conduct provided information on four key topic areas: OATA Code; Sexual Misconduct; Cyber Bullying & Cyber Defamation; and, Delegation & Assignment.