Gen_200_Professional_Knowledge

2. Professional Knowledge and Abilities Paper (Individual Assignment): * Submit your assignment as a Microsoft® Word attachment to the Individual forum by Week 5 Day 7. * Prepare a 350 to 700-word paper in which you explain how developing professional knowledge and abilities impact career success. Address the following items in your explanation: * Identify a professional organization or association in a field that interests you (e.g., Association of American Educators or American Psychological Association. * Briefly describe your selected organization or association. * Explain how your selected organization or association can contribute towards increasing professional knowledge and abilities. * Discuss how this knowledge and these abilities can impact your career success. * Use APA formatting as outlined in the APA manual, the APA 5th Edition Made Easy document, and the APA Format Checklist posted in the Course Materials forum. * Prior to submitting your paper to your instructor, submit your paper to WritePoint in the Center for Writing Excellence. | | Professional organizations provide standards and ethical guidelines that professionals must adhere to in order to be a member of the organization. Adhering to guidelines in a professional organization can help a professional to be respected in his or her field. One field of professionals that uses professional organizations is medical coding. American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is an association for professional medical coders (AHIMA, 2010.) The American Health Information Management Association was founded in 1928 in order to improve the quality of patient’s data in medical record files (AHIMA, 2010.) Currently, AHIMA is made up of more than 56,000 members of coding professionals that are dedicated to managing personal health information (AHIMA, 2010.) As an organization AHIMA’s goal is to advance the medical profession through leadership, education, certification, and lifelong learning (AHIMA, 2010.) AHIMA contributes to creating a professional environment for certified medical coders and those that choose to enter the field of medical coding by providing a code of ethics for professional coders. Medical coders that obtain certification through AHIMA are expected to adhere to the code of ethics established by AHIMA (AHIMA, 2010.) The code of ethics sets professional values and ethical principles that coding professionals are judged by (AHIMA House of Delegates, 2008.) AHIMA professionals are expected to demonstrate professional values to patients, employers, members of the healthcare team, and the public (AHIMA House of Delegates, 2008.) The code of ethics helps to guide coders during the decision making process (AHIMA House of Delegates, 2008.) Agencies such as insurance companies, courts of law, and government agencies can also use the code of ethics as a reference to ensure that ethical practices are being upheld by coding professionals (AHIMA House of Delegates, 2008.) An organization such as AHIMA provides a set of standards for professional coders to follow. By having an organization that provides guidelines for professionals and other agencies a higher level of professional knowledge is attainable for the field of medical coding. Coding professionals that wish to be certified in the field of medical coding will strive to obtain higher education in the field of coding. The more education coding professionals obtain the greater the knowledge will be for the field of coding. In order to take the exam for certification a person must have completed the equivalent of 18 months worth of college courses relating to the medical field (AHIMA, 2010.) Medical coders that achieve a certification are more likely to be hired and receive higher pay scales than those who are not certified. This encourages more medical coders to continue their education. In addition to college course requirements for medical coding certification through AHIMA, there are also requirements that medical coders must adhere to once they are certified. Medical coders must continue to be educated in the field of coding by attending coding conferences for continuing education credits (AHIMA, 2010.) AHIMA’s policy of requiring continuing education helps to keep medical coders up to date on current coding policies as regulations often change. This is a benefit to both employers and medical coders as the continued education will increase the coder’s ability to accurately code medical claims. Professional organizations such as AHIMA provide standards and ethics for professionals to follow. The purpose of organizations is to expand knowledge in professional fields as well as to create successful professionals in those fields. Members of organizations often are required to obtain higher levels of education which proves valuable for career success. Members of professional organizations are looked at more favorably for employment than potential employees who are not members of a professional organization. In addition to advanced employment opportunities, members of professional organizations are typically paid higher wages. Professionals in many fields would benefit from looking into finding professional organizations to advance their careers when possible. References: AHIMA. 2010. AHIMA Code of Ethics. Retrieved May 3rd, 2010 from http://www.ahima.org/about/ethics.asp. AHIMA. 2010. AHIMA Facts. Retrieved May 3rd, 2010 from http://www.ahima.org/about/about.asp AHIMA House of Delegates. 2008. AHIMA Standards of Ethical Coding. Retrieved May 3rd, 2010 from http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok2_001166.hcsp'dDocName=bok2_001166