MUHIMBILI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND ALIED SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT: PROFESSIONALISM AND BIO-ETHICS
COURSE NAME: BACHELOR OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
MODULE NAME: PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS
MODULE CODE: BME 308
TASK: GROUP WORK
FACILITATOR: ROLAND MOSHA
ACADEMIC YEAR: 24/25
NAME OF PARTICIPANTS
S/N NAMES REGISTRATION NUMBER
1 RACHEL J MOSHY 2022-04-16
2 HUSSEIN K JUMA 2022-04-16
3 JACKSON Z HILALIYO 2022-04-16
4 FIRDAUS SEIF 2022-04-16
5 ANDREW I TAIMU 2022-04-16
6 DAUDI E DAUDI 2022-04-16
7 THOBIAS WAMBURA 2022-04-16
8 ALEXANDER F TILYA 2022-04-16
9 GASPER C MAHENGE 2022-04-16
10 LUCAS J NDAGWE 2022-04-16
11 DONALD MOSILE 2022-04-16
Discuss the importance of elements of professionalism, principles of professionalism, and
professional codes of conduct in the medical field and how they contribute to overall success in
solving ethical dilemmas.

Professionalism refers to a collection of criteria to which an individual is anticipated to conform

within a professional environment, so as to project an image of seriousness, uniformity, or
deference. Professionalism holds significant importance as it establishes the benchmarks for
individual conduct within professional environments, thereby ensuring accountability,
dependability, and adherence to ethical principles. It cultivates an atmosphere of trust, mutual
respect, and efficient communication among peers and clientele, thereby enhancing the overall
workplace climate.

Professionalism encompasses a range of attributes and behaviors essential for effective practice
across various fields, particularly in healthcare. The key elements of professionalism include
integrity, accountability, competence, teamwork, privacy and collaboration

The following are the importance of elements of professionalism

I. A Pillar of Patient Safety and Trust

Biomedical engineers work at the crossroad of innovation and the provision of care to patients.
Integrity is a continuous commitment to honesty, precision and transparency in every decision.
You cannot stress its significance.
Safety of Patients: Devices such as ventilators, heart monitors, and prosthetics need strict safety
standards. One mistake can cost lives, emphasizing the importance of both extensive testing and
ethical behavior.
The engineers who provide these services need to be mindful of the ethical standards that must be
met for the healthcare systems and patients to be able to trust that each and every device will work
as it should and provide proper results. Integrity is the foundation of this trust, further reinforcing
collaboration among the clinical teams.
In the absence of integrity, even the most sophisticated devices cannot command credibility,
placing patient outcomes and public trust at risk.

II. Shifting technical solutions to life-saving Innovations

Knowledge empowers biomedical engineers to understand the effects of technology as seen from
the other side. It uplifts the profession by establishing links between technicism and humanism.
Creating Patient-Centered Devices: Through engineering, patient-friendly engineers work on tools
that not only are effective in their function, but also easy on the patient and comfortable, for
instance; artificial limbs that can move like natural ones or health monitoring gadgets that can be
worn comfortably.
Enhancing Collaboration: By approaching the problem from the healthcare provider’s point of
view, engineers make their inventions useful to solve practical concerns and make interactions
with patients more effective.
Empathy makes the profession personal so that development of technology is not solely for the
strength of a healthcare system but the people in it.

III. The Policy of Fair and Moral Innovation

Altruisms biomedical engineering from a technical design into a human obligation. It ensures that
the focus remains on societal well-being:
Bridging Health Inequities: Engineers take cost and availability into account because providing
inexpensive diagnostics in remote or developing regions is desirable.
Serving in Crisis: Biomedical engineers are significant also during worldwide crises: they design
furniture-mounted equipment, schema, or improve the high-throughput test systems.
This selflessness ensures that the profession remains grounded in healthcare’s ultimate goal:
enhancing people’s well-being with or without their social class restraints.

IV. Building the Future of Health Care

In fact, the context of the healthcare system dynamically changes, and biomedical engineers need
to update their knowledge constantly. This commitment is pivotal for advancing healthcare
Embracing Technological Breakthroughs: From advanced imaging with AI to effectiveness of
drugs supported by nanotechnology in health care, growth through continuous learning enables
engineers to explore how far they can go.
Enhancing Device Performance: Patents updating also keeps the devices safe, efficient and most
importantly patients’ needs through feedback and new data collected periodically.
This means that the field of biomedical engineering is always refining it ways of improving the
process of delivering health care and remains a significant endeavor of society

V. People over Profit

Ethics are mandatory on the lives of biomedical engineers since they give direction to all the
decisions made by the engineers. The patient should always come first even when given
information on cost or accessibility issues or technical constrains. Ethical decision-making means
that devices are safe, efficient and benefit the interest of all consumers and patients.
Whether attempting to protect user privacy in a mHealth app, trying to determine that optional new
device won’t introduce unforeseen risks, engineers have to make choices that always place
people’s health and welfare first. All of these ethical considerations can be seen as the primary
foundations for trust that engineers, healthcare professionals, and patients create between
themselves.

VI. Promoting Global health by eradicating hindrances to access to health care services.
Biomedical engineers realize that healthcare is not universal, but must be specialized for different
groups of people in different countries. Irrespective of the patient’s habitat or origin, patient
deserves to be accorded the best treatment as is available. Engineers operate at the intersection of
formulating inclusive problems, relevant to many individuals, and achieving those goals in a cost-
effective manner that can be implemented in areas far removed from a city center or which offers
little in the way of available resources.
What they do is not limited to creating new technology. It’s about being able to guarantee that
individuals across the globe are able to harness the potential of ground breaking advancements in
order to save lives. Thus, getting around barriers to access means biomedical engineers are
allowing the gap in healthcare to be gradually closed, contributing to changing lives for the better,
and ensuring a healthier tomorrow for all.

The principles of professionalism are the basic values and rules that help shape actions and choices
in a work setting. They show the ethical, responsible, and respectful behaviors that are anticipated
from people in their jobs. The principles of professionalism comprise of beneficence, non-
maleficence, justice, and respect for autonomy.
The following are the importance of principles of professionalism
i. Ensuring trust.
Principles of professionalism such as accountability, responsibility and integrity ensure
trust between the medical professionals and patients. This makes the patient to share
some of the sensitive problems about their health to the medical professionals since they
hope that they will be served properly and also there will be a sense of confidentiality
thus adding credibility to the medical professions.
For example a doctor who wants to treat a patient he or she must consult a Biomedical
Engineer to pre-check the medical devices such as suction machine,oxygen flowmeters
and many others to be used during treatments since he or she trust the engineer and he or
she will be served accordingly. (Lencioni, 2002)

ii. Promoting collaboration:

Principles of professionalism such as respect, responsibility, empathy and effective
communication enables productive cooperation and unity among the medical team
working together in a room. This helps the medical professionals such as Biomedical
Engineers, doctors, nurses, therapists and many others work together as a team so as to
deliver best health services to the patients in need.
For example biomedical engineers collaborating with the surgeons to ensure that the
medical devices for surgery meet the specific needs of a patient. Also during installation
of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine, a biomedical engineer works closely
with the hospital staff to ensure the machine is set up safely and trains the staff on how to
use it. (Fombrun, 2004)

iii. Ensuring patient safety and welfare.

The principle of responsibility and being accountable ensures that the health services are
delivered properly to the patient by the medical professionals. This is because the
patients’ rights, care and safety are always prioritized before personal interests of the
medical professionals under any circumstance.
For example if a patient has been brought to the hospital and needs to be treated
immediately then the biomedical engineers will immediately attend to the medical
devices for both preventive and corrective maintanance to ensure that the patient is
 served properly without any problem thus ensuring his or her life’s welfare. (Crosby,
1979)

iv. Enhancing competent based professional skills

The principle of competence and continuous learning enables the medical professionals
to have high standards of competency in which they will continue to learn more on their
respective fields. This will enable them to continue provide updated and best health care
services to the community thus improving the health care delivery.
For example; biomedical engineers should stay updated on the MedTech Innovations
such as Artificial Intelligence so as to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to the
communities. also improving problem solving skills to quickly fix equipment issues.
(Tannen, 1995)

v. Ensures good decision making with patients’ interest

Professionalism principles like justice, autonomy and beneficence ensures that the
decisions are made in the best interests of patients where the patient can request his or her
problem should be kept as confidential by the medical professional who has just attended
him or her. This also makes the medical professional to be consistent and fair in handling
the similar situations thus reducing the issues of biasness and unprofessional behaviour.
For example a biomedical engineer can decide to prioritize medical devices’
confidentiality which may not meet the patients’ need such as X-rays so that can be used
to scan the image of a patient with immediate effect to secure his or her life. (Schwartz,
2017)

vi. Promotes respect

Professionalism principle like respect for others ensures that others are treated well with
kindness and fairness, it creates a respectful and a good welcoming environment.
Through this, it helps to build positive relationships with between health professionals
and patients. For example a biomedical engineer working on a certain medical device
listens carefully to the feedback from doctors and nurses who will be using the device.
Even though biomedical engineers are technical experts, they consider the inputs from
the healthcare staffs so as to get opinions and recommendations about medical devices.
(Thomas, 1976)

Professional code of conduct is a set of guidelines or principles that shows the ethical standards,
values, and behaviours expected from indulviduals of a certain profession.
Medical field, specifically biomedical engineering has its own codes of conduct which give
guidelines on the ethical standards, values and behaviors that a biomedical engineer should
have. The followings are some of professional code of conducts in biomedical field
i. Patient safety
 A biomedical engineer must priotize safety of a patient by ensuring that all medical
devices and systems are maintained at highest standards

ii. Confidentiality
A biomedical engineer should respect patient’s privacy by safe guarding sensitive
information related to a patient or any sensitive information encountered in the field

iii. Competence
A biomedical engineer should do the tasks only which he/she is qualified with, and with
great performance

iv. Respect
A biomedical engineer should show respect to other co workers, patients and everyone
around the field

v. Autonomy
Respecting patient’s autonomy includes honoring their rights to make informed decisions
about their care. Biomedical engineers consider how their devices will empower patients
to make informed decisions about their health care

The following is how professional code of conduct play a crucial role in resolving ethical
dilemmas in the medical field

i. It encourages collaboration
Professional codes in medical field encourages mutual respect, teamwork and unity
which promotes collaboration for better helathcare provision

ii. It promotes accountability and integrity

Adhering to code of conduct ensures professionals acts transparently and responsibly,
reducing personal biases in ethical dilemmas and promotes accountability.

iii. It build trust with stakeholders

Adhering with code of conduct has built trust among medical personels that fosters trust
in decisions during difficult situations

iv. Ensuring Patient centered care

Codes emphasize the importance of priotizing patient walfare and autonomy, ensuring
decisions aligns with patient’s best course of action

v. Guiding decision making

 Code of conduct provide a consistent set of ethical principles such as autonomy,
beneficence, and justice that guide professionals in evaluating complex situations

In summation, professionalism, characterized by its fundamental components, guiding principles,

and codes of conduct, is indispensable for facilitating the effective and ethical execution of
biomedical engineering and healthcare practices. It cultivates trust, cooperation, and
accountability, all of which are vital for making informed, patient-centered decisions and
addressing ethical quandaries. By conforming to these recognized norms, biomedical engineers
significantly impact the security and reliability of health care systems, ultimately putting patient
health first and improving the overall care standard in society.
References
Crosby, P. (1979). The art of making quality certain. McGraw-Hill.

Fombrun, C. (2004). How successful companies build winning reputations. Pearson education.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunction of a team. a leadership fable, jossey-bass.

Schwartz, M. (2017). The impact of ethical leadership on trust in leader and employee outcomes.

Tannen, D. (1995). The power of talk. Havard business review.

Thomas, K. (1976). A survey of managerial interests in organizational behaviour. academy of

management journal.