Professionalism in Health Care: A Primer for Career Success, 5th edition

• Helps students master the soft skills that are crucial to success in any health care career. Comprehensive coverage of the fundamental soft skills that are crucial for all health care professionals—and that employers often find lacking in new employees. These include effective communication, etiquette, honesty, ethics, teamwork, and leadership.
• Helps students understand professionalism as a state of mind. Readers are taught to think of professionalism as a way of being, knowing, and doing that sets them apart from others. Students are asked to consider what they value, how they treat others, and the contributions they can make to health care.
• Presents information in an an easy-to-learn format. Information is presented in a conversational writing style with accessible learning features and extensive connections to the student’s own life and career.
• Encourages learners to think critically. Real-world scenarios, questions, and issues help students discover how character, personal values, reputation, morals, integrity, and trustworthiness will apply in their health care careers.
• UPDATED: Supplies extensive resources students can use in their job searches and careers. The expanded appendices contain sample job descriptions, performance evaluations, résumés and cover letters, job applications, and interview follow-up letters.
• Appeals to visual learners so they can learn quickly and intuitively. A full-color layout with attractive photographs engages learners as they read.
• Helps readers learn efficiently and gain insight as to how the book’s content relates to them. Pedagogical features include:
  • UPDATED/EXPANDED: Consider This and Think About It boxes, end-of-chapter What If? scenarios, Reality Check features, Key Points summaries, Chapter Review Questions, and For More Information web links.
  • NEW: Professionalism Online features in each chapter which address the growing importance of exhibiting professionalism online.
  • NEW: Hot Topics, By the Numbers, Trends and Issues, and The More You Know sections that provide a wealth of interesting and supportive information on diverse topics.
  • NEW: A continuing Case Study featuring a fictional medical assistant as she becomes a supervisor and deals with real-life behavioral issues in a large physician practice.
  • NEW: A Closing Thoughts section at the end of the text that summarizes the key concepts that students need to think about and remember as they complete their education and join the health care workforce.
  • UPDATED: More than 55 new Glossary terms and definitions, for a total of 318 terms.
• Helps students understand the big picture and where they fit into it. The opening chapter, “The Health Care Industry and Your Role,” describes what it’s like to work in health care today.
• Prepares students to handle challenges in communication with colleagues, supervisors, patients, and families. Coverage of relationships, teamwork, communication skills, etiquette, manners, and issues in using electronic communication helps readers avoid miscommunication and misunderstandings.
• Fully prepares students to deliver care to all types of patients. Content on cultural competence, diversity, generational issues, and patient satisfaction includes information on how patient satisfaction is measured, reported, and enhanced, and the role patient satisfaction scores affect health care reform.
• Helps students consistently present themselves as professionals. Content on dress code, professional image and attire, and issues relating to the health care worker’s personal health and wellness help readers make connections between professionalism and their personal life.
• Helps students move forward in their careers more rapidly and with greater confidence. To support students at all stages of their careers, content is included on interviewing for jobs, becoming a better leader, and career advancement.
• UPDATED: Gives students access to the field’s latest terminology and medical advances.
  • Chapter One, “The Health Care Industry and Your Role,” includes recent developments in health care reform and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, along with other current trends and issues that impact health care workers, employers, and patients.
  • Chapter Two, “Your Work Ethic and Performance,” has a new section discussing the importance of self-awareness, mindfulness, and acting with intent.
  • Chapter Three, “Personal Traits of the Health Care Professional,” has a new section discussing negligence, malpractice, civil and criminal law, libel, slander, and other legal aspects.
  • Chapter Four, “Relationships, Teamwork, and Communication Skills,” is expanded with new content including: The Essential Elements of Communication, Factors that Influence Your Communication with Others, and Barriers to Communication. Additional new topics include Health Literacy and Hearing Loss.
  • Chapter Five, “Cultural Competence and Patient Care,” has new content on patient consent, patient rights and responsibilities, and online patient portals. The Case Study involves a transgender patient who believes she has been disrespected by office staff.
  • Chapter Six, “Professionalism and Your Personal Life,” has a new section on Self-Care for Health Care Workers with information on nutrition and a healthy diet, personal risk factors, and the importance of resilience. Text covering the standards for appropriate attire and the importance of exercising caution in after-hours behavior is updated and reinforced.
  • Chapter Seven, “The Practicum Experience,” includes a new section on Safety at Work and a discussion about drug testing in states that have legalized the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana.
  • Chapter Eight, “Employment and Professional Development,” is reorganized and updated to emphasize the increasing use of Internet job boards and online job applications. New content provides resources for researching labor trends and projections, and reinforces the importance of leadership skills and participation in professional associations.

Personalize learning with MyHealthProfessionsLab™ MyHealthProfessionsLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Within its structured environment, students gain knowledge that will carry through to their professional careers.

• Hone reasoning skills. What If? Scenarios guide students through a case study and challenge them to make both action- and knowledge-based decisions.
• Promote self reflection and insight with “real-world” applications. Students learn better when they can connect what they are learning to their personal experience. Our PIA (Personal Inventory Assessments) allow students to gain a better understanding of their own personality style.
• Cultivate student engagement. Good communication skills open doors. MediaShare builds these skills by offering an engaging online environment where students can interact with both peers and instructors in interview / job preparation role-play activities.
• Reinforce key concepts. Chapter Homework assignments assess student comprehension of that chapter’s learning objectives.
• Digital access anytime, anywhere with the Pearson eText. The Pearson eText gives students access to their textbook anytime, anywhere. In addition to note taking, highlighting, and bookmarking, the Pearson eText offers interactive and sharing features. Instructors can share their comments or highlights, and students can add their own, creating a tight community of learners in your class. The Pearson eText companion app allows existing subscribers to access their titles on an iPad or Android tablet for either online or offline viewing.
• Save time in class by identifying areas of weakness early with Automatic Grading and Performance Reporting. Automatic grading saves you time, while visual reports allow you to quickly identify students who are struggling. The reports also let you assess overall class and individual student achievement.

• UPDATED: Supplies extensive resources students can use in their job searches and careers. The expanded appendices contain sample job descriptions, performance evaluations, résumés and cover letters, job applications, and interview follow-up letters.
• Helps readers learn efficiently and gain insight as to how the book’s content relates to them. Pedagogical features include:
  • UPDATED/EXPANDED: Consider This and Think About It boxes, end-of-chapter What If? scenarios, Reality Check features, Key Points summaries, Chapter Review Questions, and For More Information web links.
  • New Professionalism Online features in each chapter which address the growing importance of exhibiting professionalism online.
  • New Hot Topics, By the Numbers, Trends and Issues, and The More You Know sections that provide a wealth of interesting and supportive information on diverse topics.
  • A new continuing Case Study featuring a fictional medical assistant as she becomes a supervisor and deals with real-life behavioral issues in a large physician practice.
  • A new Closing Thoughts section at the end of the text that summarizes the key concepts that students need to think about and remember as they complete their education and join the health care workforce.
  • UPDATED: More than 55 new Glossary terms and definitions, for a total of 318 terms.
• UPDATED: Gives students access to the field’s latest terminology and medical advances.
  • Chapter One, “The Health Care Industry and Your Role,” includes recent developments in health care reform and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, along with other current trends and issues that impact health care workers, employers, and patients.
  • Chapter Two, “Your Work Ethic and Performance,” has a new section discussing the importance of self-awareness, mindfulness, and acting with intent.
  • Chapter Three, “Personal Traits of the Health Care Professional,” has a new section discussing negligence, malpractice, civil and criminal law, libel, slander, and other legal aspects.
  • Chapter Four, “Relationships, Teamwork, and Communication Skills,” is expanded with new content including: The Essential Elements of Communication, Factors that Influence Your Communication with Others, and Barriers to Communication. Additional new topics include Health Literacy and Hearing Loss.
  • Chapter Five, “Cultural Competence and Patient Care,” has new content on patient consent, patient rights and responsibilities, and online patient portals. The Case Study involves a transgender patient who believes she has been disrespected by office staff.
  • Chapter Six, “Professionalism and Your Personal Life,” has a new section on Self-Care for Health Care Workers with information on nutrition and a healthy diet, personal risk factors, and the importance of resilience. Text covering the standards for appropriate attire and the importance of exercising caution in after-hours behavior is updated and reinforced.
  • Chapter Seven, “The Practicum Experience,” includes a new section on Safety at Work and a discussion about drug testing in states that have legalized the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana.
  • Chapter Eight, “Employment and Professional Development,” is reorganized and updated to emphasize the increasing use of Internet job boards and online job applications. New content provides resources for researching labor trends and projections, and reinforces the importance of leadership skills and participation in professional associations.