What is a professional
Professional is the person who practices a profession, that is, the person who works in a specific and specialized area of work, whose knowledge has been acquired through university instruction. It is also used as a qualifying adjective to express that something belongs to the profession.
As an example of professionals we can mention: doctors, social communicators, anthropologists, sociologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, architects, lawyers, etc.
To be formally called professionals and be able to practice legally, these people must have received at least a third-level university degree (bachelor’s degree and related) and, in most cases, be registered in the Professional College (College of Physicians, College of Engineers, etc.).
This word is made up of several Latin words: promeaning ‘ahead or in sight’, fateriwhich means ‘confess’ and yeswhich means ‘action and effect’.
Professional as a quality
As the years went by, the word professional has acquired an evaluative connotation. This means that it not only designates someone who exercises a certain work specialty, but it can refer to the qualities that make him stand out in the performance of his work.
An example of this is: “Dr. Ruíz is a professional.” In the context of this phrase, the title of doctor demonstrates that the person referred to is a certified professional. But the expression “he is a true professional” wants to emphasize the values of his work practice: professional ethics.
In this sense, in certain areas of knowledge it is possible that some people not trained at the university are considered professionals, since they exercise the positive values associated with the exercise of a certain profession: excellent mastery of the necessary knowledge (self-taught), responsibility, punctuality and ethics.
This use of the term professional is very common in the artistic field. It frequently happens in the artistic world that artists (musicians, painters, actors, dancers) have not taken university studies, but have been trained in the practice of the trade, reaching such a level of excellence and recognition that they enjoy the prestige of “professionals.” It can be said in this case that they do profession of the trade.
See also:
Professional ethics
Professional ethics refers to the set of values associated with professional practice, especially important in those professions that serve or impact human beings.
Among the values of professional ethics, the following are recognized: exercise of conscience, responsibility, punctuality, professional secrecy, discipline, perseverance, etc. A professional is supposed to put all these qualities into practice.
Eventually, a professional may face a conflict between professional ethics and personal ethics.
Professional secret
In some professions, there is a legal obligation to keep secret information revealed in the course of work by clients, beneficiaries, patients or informants. This obligation is part of professional ethics.
Among these professions we can mention medicine, psychology, psychiatry, law, nursing, social work and journalism.
For example, a journalist can never reveal the source of information without your consent. Doctors, nurses and psychologists cannot disclose the health problems of a particular patient either.