Medical Professions: Health Professions

These are also called medical professions and include a variety of more or less well-known, quite different professions. Other designations such as non-medical health professions, auxiliary health professions, supplementary health professions or medical assistant professions are often perceived as discriminatory by the various occupational groups, as they do not adequately reflect the wide range of activities and responsibilities, nor the legal regulations.

Regulations

The training and practice of health professions is regulated by means of legislation – access to the profession at the federal level by granting permission to use the professional title. Because the states have leeway in implementing the laws, training content and qualification standards may differ. The approximately 50 professional designations are grouped together:

  • Obstetrics (e.g., midwife).
  • Elderly and nursing (eg, pediatric nurse).
  • Assistant professions in medical practices and pharmacies (eg pharmaceutical technical assistant).
  • Medical-technical field (eg medical-technical radiology assistant).
  • Rehabilitation (eg physiotherapist, dietician).
  • In the broader sense also health craft (eg hearing aid acoustician).
  • Other such as hygiene professions (eg disinfector) and professions with social character (eg curative educator).

Heilpraktiker

Heilpraktiker occupy a special position: they do not undergo academic or otherwise legally regulated training and unlike all other healing professions do not require a state exam to practice. The only legal requirements are a completed secondary school education, the completion of the 25th year of age and an – unregulated – examination of the applicant’s knowledge and skills by the health authority. If this is positive, he receives a state license for the professional practice of medicine, is registered at the competent health office and is – like the academic healing professions – self-employed.

Regulations

The profession of Heilpraktiker is regulated in Germany by the Heilpraktikergesetz and the First Implementing Ordinance thereto. However, it is not explicitly defined, but only determined by the demarcation from the professional image of the doctor (“practice of medicine without a medical certificate”, ie without a license). Also, in order to ensure the quality and seriousness of their profession, many alternative practitioners are voluntarily organized in professional associations. These are associations under civil law, of which the six largest in turn act together externally as the joint initiative “Die Deutschen Heilpraktikerverbände” (DDH). The Heilpraktikerverbände have also published a fee schedule, to which reputable alternative practitioners usually orient themselves.

Services

Heilpraktiker are allowed – like physicians and psychotherapists – to “practice medicine on humans” (defined in the Heilpraktikergesetz as “professionally or commercially determining, healing or alleviating diseases, suffering or bodily harm in humans”), but are subject to some restrictions: They are not allowed to treat notifiable infectious diseases and venereal diseases as well as dental, oral and maxillofacial diseases; they are also prohibited from assisting in childbirth, examining and treating sexual organs, prescribing prescription drugs, using X-rays, transplanting tissues and organs, performing blood transfusions and performing necropsy with the issuing of death certificates.

Otherwise, alternative practitioners may, for example, inject, treat broken bones, and use a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. They are allowed to run a practice and manage a clinic. Heilpraktiker may thus – even without legally regulated training – do more than, for example, a health and nurse (formerly nurse)! However, the same applies here: A Heilpraktiker, like any other member of a healing profession, may only act according to his knowledge and skills and can be held just as responsible for what he does. A Heilpraktiker is subject to the duty of confidentiality just like a physician, but to a lesser extent.