When most people hear the term “health care profession”, they probably think of doctors. But in Germany, other professions are included – some with, others without academic training. Here’s a path through this healthcare jungle.
Definition
Not everyone who recognizes, heals or alleviates illnesses is a member of the healing professions – after all, even mothers often take care of their child’s little aches and pains themselves. On the other hand, the recognized healing professions in Germany also include occupational groups such as pharmacists or beauticians, which one does not necessarily think of spontaneously. So what exactly are healing professions?
The above description is an important pillar for characterizing healing professions: These are professional activities that serve to determine, cure or alleviate diseases or disabilities or provide preventive health care services. A distinction is made between the healing professions in the narrower sense, the academic healing professions, and the healing professions without academic training, which are also referred to as health care professions or medical professions. The group of non-medical practitioners occupies a special position.
Academic health professions
These are characterized by a federally regulated university education, namely as a doctor, dentist, veterinarian, pharmacist or psychotherapist (psychological psychotherapist, child and adolescent psychotherapist). Permission to practice the profession is called Approbation and is a mandatory prerequisite for working in the respective profession.
Regulations:
Training, licensing and professional activity are regulated by federal and state laws; the states are responsible for regulating professional practice and continuing education. In some federal states, the individual laws for academic healing professions are combined into a Heilberufekammergesetz. Academic health professions are typically organized in professional organizations under public law (“chambers,” e.g., medical association), which regulate professional practice, professional representation, and professional jurisdiction at the state law level.
Benefits:
A physician is entitled to perform all activities that he considers necessary and appropriate, which must comply with medical standards and rules of the healing art. In doing so, he is obliged to conscientiously examine usefulness and risks as well as alternatives and to inform the patient accurately about his considerations and steps. Not all such services are covered by the statutory health insurance, but quite a few must be paid by the patient as individual health services (IgeL).
