This resource supports the competency “ethical conduct and professionalism” and is relevant to everyone working in health care, from students to highly experienced and specialized practitioners to supervisors and policy makers.

What Is Professionalism? The answer to this question starts with a definition of what constitutes a “profession.” Compared to other occupations, a profession involves a defined body of technical knowledge and skills, and a defined sphere of practice. Members of a profession are expected to be able to demonstrate core knowledge and skills, and to continue to update them through ongoing training and education. Today, diverse professional fields work with people with substance use disorders: medicine, addiction treatment, psychiatry, nursing, enforcement, corrections, psychology, social work, occupational therapy and recreational therapy, as well as other health and social service disciplines. The workforce specializing in substance use is also unique in that many workers are themselves in recovery and not all workers belong to a formally regulated, publicly accredited profession or have credentials from a professional licensing and accrediting body...  

What Is Ethics? There are important distinctions between morals and ethics. Morals are personal values about right and wrong, good and bad that come from the groups to which people belong and identify, such as family, ethnic or cultural groups, religious or spiritual communities, and peer groups or social circles. One person’s or group’s moral beliefs can be very different from those of another. These differences can be so great that there is a clash of values. This is where ethics comes in...