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Professional responsibilities are those that are clearly expressed in the rules of conduct and guidelines of professional bodies. To understand what is meant by professional responsibilities, it is necessary to explain what is meant by the term “profession”. Clearly, not all occupations are regarded as professions. Traditionally the professions included medicine, the clergy, and law, but these days there are many other occupations that have been professionalised. All of the Health Professionals that fall under the HPCSA are professionals by virtue of being regulated by their professional Boards. A “profession” has distinctive characteristics7 _{that have been}

identified as important by some scholars like (Greenwood, 1957, Swick, 2000, Freidson, 2001, Van Rensburg, 2004, Witschge and Nygren, 2009). The profession elements allow members of the profession to have control of their work and autonomy in their day to day practice. These include the following:

 A profession has a knowledge – monopoly that prevents those outside the profession from doing the work of the profession (Witschge and Nygren, 2009). The professional knowledge as Van Rensburg (2004) asserts is organised to include technical skills and mode of

7 _{Greenwood (1957) provides five core attributes of a profession from a social work context that includes:} having (a) a systematic body of theory (b) professional authority; (c) sanction of the community; (d) regulative code of ethics; and (e) professional culture on one hand. While the work of Freidson (2001) sums the ideal-type profession from a sociology medical perspective on other, to be consisting of three logics: first, members of the occupational group must be able to control their own work; second, they must have autonomy in their everyday practice and third, there must be an ideology by which all members subscribe that asserts greater commitment to doing good work over economic gains and prioritise the quality of work.

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reasoning that a person must acquire through the process of education, training and socialisation before being allowed into the ranks of the profession.

 A profession has autonomy8 _{to work and collective self-control. In this regard, the}

profession has formal and informal controls through which professionals regulate their individual and corporate behaviour and by which the profession is distinct from other occupations. In other words, the profession has a clear occupationally controlled division of labour and power to keep non-professional people outside the profession.

 A profession has strong professional education and research components which create a controlled labour market that requires the profession credentials to enter or follow it as a career thus making the profession distinct from a mere occupation that sets no entry professional requirements to be hired.

 A profession has value components of service, commitment and calling that are normally contained in codes of ethics and codes of conduct as well as in oaths conveying unto the professions the fiduciary, service oriented nature. This element of profession delineates specific responsibilities for professionals as a centre of focus in serving individual and group needs as well as the common good of the society (Van Rensburg, 2004). It is within this context that a profession has ethical rules and standards that govern conduct of its professionals.

Becoming a professional is an ongoing process that begins with gaining entry to a profession followed with the acquisition of profession’s scientific knowledge leading to being recognised to practice as a competent practitioner. Some scholars emphasise that being a professional should not be limited to the acquisition of skills, but should also include the integration of theory and practice being conscious of what kind of a professional you ought to be. This is best captured in the following assertion:

“the unfolding way of becoming a professional, incorporates not only our knowing and how we act but, also who we are as professionals. The process gives meaning to the knowledge and skills being developed within professional practice, while also incorporating an understanding of the practice itself. [So,] as the professional learns to deal with new situations, their embodied understanding of the practice evolves in different ways. Their learning progressions [as a result]

8 _{It is worth noting that for the profession to enjoy autonomy, it must meet its expected responsibilities. The} profession is likely to earn high public respect when its professionals espouse “the profession’s social values and regard the profession as a calling and way of life as opposed to merely an occupation” (Swick, 2000, p.613).

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may lead them to comprehensive understanding of practice or may involve refinement of an existing understanding of practice” (Adams et al., 2011, p.590).

The dictionary meaning of a professional refers to a term used to delineate that a particular occupation is performed by people who received special training or have acquired special skills that makes them competent in doing the work concerned. Professionalism9 _{is central to}

professional responsibilities in that it locates professionals in relation to the profession to which they belong. It is “the collection of a professional’s attitudes, values, behaviours and relationships on which the society based the conduct of the professional in performing their duties” (Hornby, 2010, p.1170). Moreover, professionalism identifies EHPs with the purpose of the profession they pursue, which sets standards to follow and distinguishes them from other professionals.

The recognition of a professional occupation and its professionals requires “enabling legislation” (Pretorius, 2004, p.549) that creates their professional identity. In South Africa, the Health Professions Act, no. 56 of 1974 with its amendments provides for the development of a professional guide for health professionals including EHPs in South Africa. The Professional Board of Environmental Health Practitioners uses the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) generic rules that define how health professionals should ideally conduct themselves and the parameters under which to carry out their duties.

The professional responsibilities of EHPs in South Africa are measured against the HPCSA professional guidelines. These responsibilities are carried out with the observance of professional rules that set out what is acceptable and not acceptable within health professions in South Africa. There are overlaps between legal and professional aspects as shown in Figure 1.1. Hence, the professional regulation of EHPs is provided for under the Health Professions Act, no. 56 of 1974. For example, this Act requires that EHPs should receive special environmental health training in accredited institutions and be registered with their Professional

9 _{Herbert Swick (2000) in his paper titled “Towards a Normative Definition of Medical professionalism” argues} that professionalism is best explained than described. He asserts that professionalism entails the commitment of professionals to apply the profession’s knowledge and continue to improve themselves, and the relationships with colleagues, clients and the community at large. Swick suggested a set of essential behavioural attributes for medical professionalism that can also be applied by EHPs: These include: 1. Subordinating own interests to the interests of others; 2. Adhering to high ethical and moral standards; 3. Responding to societal needs; 4. Showing humanistic values of honesty, integrity, caring, compassion, apathy trustworthiness and respect for others; 5. Exercising accountability for self and for colleagues; 6. Demonstrating a continuing commitment to excellence; 7. Exhibiting a commitment to scholarship and to advancing own field; 8. Dealing with high levels of complexity and uncertainty; and 9. Reflecting upon own actions and decisions.

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Board during their training and before practising environmental health in South Africa. Moreover, EHPs are required in terms of their professional guidelines to only practice what they are competent to practise by virtue of the approved training they have received. Failure to adhere to this requirement exposes them to disciplinary actions (Health Professions Council of South Africa, 2014a). The overlap between the legal requirements and professional guidelines makes it illegal for EHPs to practise environmental health when they are unlicenced to do so. Any unauthorised practice constitutes the breaking of the law and breach of contract of EHPs practice as set out by their profession. Such an act is a violation of both law and professional guidelines.

In practice, at times EHPs are faced with the predicament of making decisions in difficult situations necessitating acting in a compassionate manner towards the clients instead of being firm and consistent. By so doing EHPs are likely to contravene the professional rules. In this regard, the idea put forward by Ingram (2013) becomes relevant. According to Ingram, “a professional should be emotionally balanced over and above knowing the professional procedures [and legal requirements] in order to be able to arrive at a best decision. [If so], the professional would strive to build good relationship with the clients, be aware and avoid personal shortcomings from affecting decision making process” (Ingram, 2013, p.6). Further details on professional responsibilities and related challenges applicable to EHPs as found in this study are presented in Chapter Five.