Starting your first healthcare job? Whether you’re a nurse, medical technician, therapist, or administrative staff, navigating a professional environment can feel overwhelming at first. But starting with the right mindset and a basic understanding of workplace etiquette will go a long way toward developing your reputation as a team player.
On Board Virginia spoke with Cindy Rubenstein, Ph.D., RN, CPNP-PC, CNE, to identify 10 healthcare professionalism tips she often shares with health students as they enter the workforce. She also covers common workplace mistakes and how to avoid them.
Related: Explore thousands of in-demand healthcare jobs across Virginia’s hospitals and grow your career!
The Key Takeaways:
•Being professional in healthcare requires soft skills around respect, communication, and accountability. It’s also contextual. Pay attention to your peers and adapt accordingly.
•Hospitals prioritize healthcare workers with strong work ethics and collaboration skills. When working with others, focus on maintaining a concise communication style that prioritizes problem–solving. Take notes and leverage available resources to build your judgment skills.
•Avoid basic mistakes like showing up late, wearing inappropriate clothing, and being on your phone excessively. More complex mistakes include overpromising when you can’t deliver and getting defensive about feedback.
(10 Tips) How to Be Professional in Healthcare
Our healthcare professionalism tips apply to most situations, regardless of your role or where you work. However, you should keep in mind that workplace culture can greatly shift expected behaviors based on context, communication styles, and leadership. A faux pas in one hospital may help establish rapport in another.
When in doubt, watch your peers closely to gauge the baseline work etiquette and adjust your style accordingly. Value alignment and professionalism are two things to look for when vetting the best hospital employers.
1. Be Punctual & Manage Your Time Well
Managing your time correctly is essential when working in a high-volume hospital. Patient care, shift changes, and procedures rely on precise timing, and there might be other dependencies you don’t know about.
Punctuality avoids delays, helping the hospital run smoothly. Respect people’s time and communicate clearly with your team lead to manage expectations.
•Arrive early – Show up 5–10 minutes early for shifts and important meetings to get ready. Arriving unprepared often wastes more time as you get into the task.
•Plan your shift – Establish daily and weekly routines to guide your schedule. Then, at the start of the day, craft to-do lists. Organize tasks by urgency, group similar activities together, and dedicate time blocks based on how long it takes to do something. These skills help you understand your capacity to make the most of your time.
•Mind Deadlines & Time-Sensitive Tasks – Time management is often about prioritization. Learn which tasks need to be completed first and adjust accordingly. For example, a delay in testing a patient sample may require you to recollect samples, resulting in unnecessary overhead.
2. Maintain Your Appearance
How you present yourself affects how others perceive your professionalism. A well-kept appearance helps build confidence in your abilities, especially among patients.
Always follow your facility’s dress code, wear your ID badge, and ensure your scrubs or uniform are clean and tidy. This is extremely important for settings that demand certain dress codes for safety and hygiene reasons.
If you’re attending a job interview, an important meeting, or training, and there isn’t a clear dress code, opt for a business formal outfit that shows you’re taking things seriously. Remember, you can always dress down to business casual if needed. Avoid casual clothes such as athleisure, t-shirts, or jeans unless explicitly allowed in the workplace.
3. Build Strong Communication Skills
Being a strong communicator is not just about being a good speaker. Effective communication involves understanding the purpose of a conversation, knowing your key points, and delivering the message in a way that makes sense to the listener. The goal is to get people on the same page in case something needs to change.
We recommend using the “ask-first” model, which places your request at the start of the conversation. This helps listeners understand what you need from them immediately, rather than waiting through a slew of context.
For example: “Could you help me review care instructions with a family? It’s an emotional moment, and they’re not receptive to what I’m saying.” From there, you can include additional context as needed.
•Communicate Issues Early – If you anticipate an issue that will affect your work, let your team lead know as soon as possible. That could be scheduling issues, an unmet deadline, shifting priorities, or needing support on a challenge.
•Keep It Brief – Get to the point quickly and only give as much context as needed. Newer professionals tend to ask questions and overcommunicate because this communication style was rewarded in academic settings. In professional settings, an as-needed communication style that emphasizes problem-solving skills is more valuable.
•Use the Right Communication Channels – Each communication channel has a purpose. Emails are best for periodic announcements and updates, while instant messaging is best for quick responses. Learn to use landlines and gain confidence when talking over the phone. This is often the best way to resolve an issue. Texting should be limited to urgent situations and never used for formal communication.
•Actively Listen & Recap Key Points – Communication is a two-way street. Show that you’re paying attention to your peers and are taking their comments seriously. If there are action items from the conversation, it’s a good idea to recap them for clarity.
4. Take Notes & Be Proactive About Learning
No one expects you to know everything on day one—but they will expect you to learn as you go. People don’t want to repeat the same advice to you, and being unresponsive to feedback can make you seem irresponsible. Ask questions to clarify tasks and use these tips to retain what you’ve learned:
•Jot Personal Notes – Write tips, reminders, and key information in a notebook or app. Refer to your notes to troubleshoot issues and find solutions before confirming with your team lead on the correct path forward.
•Review Standard Procedures – Most hospitals have standard operating procedures (SOPs) to walk employees through tasks (and avoid liability issues). Reference SOPs to solve issues and suggest updates or improvements to your team lead if processes evolve.
•Reflect on Feedback – If someone gives you feedback, you should document it and adapt proactively. This helps you avoid repeated mistakes and build your reputation as a dependable teammate.
5. Use Appropriate Language
How you speak to patients and colleagues is one of the cornerstones of healthcare professionalism. It goes without saying that you should use polite, respectful language at all times, avoiding curse words or inappropriate slang that can lead to misunderstandings.
Of course, your tone should be authentic but contextually appropriate. For example, joking casually with a patient may help keep them calm, but overtly casual conversations may undermine their trust in you. The same goes for co-workers.
You also need to be aware of the situation. Chatting with someone in the breakroom may include friendly banter, but using casual language in a formal meeting may come off as disinterested or disrespectful. Pay attention to your peers and the preferred communication style and adapt accordingly.
6. Avoid Oversharing
Building strong workplace relationships often requires a level of vulnerability and authenticity, but you need to maintain professional boundaries. Oversharing personal problems or controversial opinions can make coworkers uncomfortable or lead to an awkward dynamic. An inability to read the room may also damage your authority.
•Keep It Light – Stick to safe topics that help you learn more about each other without getting too personal. That could be TV shows, pets, food, and similar talking points. Stay away from politics, deep dives into personal conflicts, and other potentially touchy subjects.
•Avoid Getting Too Personal Too Fast – It takes time to build friendships at work, and people grow rapport by having good working dynamics instead of simply chatting. Focus on being reliable and easy to work with, and the rest will come naturally.
•Read the Room – Just like using appropriate language, understanding when to share personal information requires reading the room well. Is the person receptive to your communication? Is this the right time and place to talk about this topic, or is there a better occasion?
7. Be a Team Player
Hospitals are collaborative environments that work best when people understand how to cooperate. Active communication and high-quality work are key to being a team player, but there are also soft skills and general etiquette to keep in mind.
The golden rule is our go-to for establishing baseline behavior: Treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself. What can you do to make work a bit easier for your peers?
•Respect Communal Spaces – Keep workstations and breakrooms tidy, and be considerate of others using the space. Avoid playing music without headphones when there are others around.
•Respect Other People’s Property – Do not use or take things that don’t belong to you. That includes food in the fridge, medical equipment, and other people’s personal items.
•Set Your Peers Up for Success – If you know someone is taking over your work, make sure they have the tools needed to do their job. You wouldn’t want to come into an unkept workstation or have to decipher questionable work.
8. Stay Accountable
Accountability means taking ownership of your actions, whether the outcome is good or bad. If you forget to administer a medication or miss a detail in documentation, report it immediately and help correct the issue. Don’t shift blame or hope no one notices. Being honest and solution-focused shows integrity. Your team will respect you more for owning up to mistakes and working to prevent them from happening again.
9. Avoid Workplace Gossip and Drama
Gossip may seem like harmless venting, but it damages trust and morale. Speaking negatively about coworkers, even in private, can make others question your professionalism. If someone tries to pull you into drama, redirect the conversation or excuse yourself.
•Don’t Take Sides – Workplace drama likes an audience to fuel the fire, but they often don’t have to do with anyone but the original party. Staying neutral protects your reputation and keeps the team focused on patient care.
•Talk to Your Team Lead – If you have an issue with a coworker that can’t be resolved one-on-one, consult your team lead. They can advise you on appropriate steps and help document larger incidents with HR.
•Manage Your Emotions – Unregulated emotions impact your ability to perform and work collaboratively. Find ways to process your feelings productively, such as talking to a mentor and establishing work boundaries.
10. Put Your Phone Away
An often overlooked healthcare professionalism tip: Put your phone away if you don’t need it.
On a similar note, don’t wear headphones and listen to music outside of your break unless you’re explicitly allowed to. Headphones can give off a “don’t talk to me” vibe, which is not helpful in a collaborative setting.
Common Healthcare Professionalism Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
Following our healthcare professionalism tips is a great starting point when entering a work setting. But an eagerness to do well may also lead to minor pitfalls. Here are a few errors new professionals often encounter and how to sidestep them:
Not Asking Questions
It might feel intimidating to ask questions. But trying to fake your way through a task is a bigger risk, especially when it comes to patient care or medical procedures. For example, if you don’t know how to operate a new piece of equipment, ask someone to walk you through it. It’s better to take a few extra minutes to learn correctly than to make a costly error.
Forgetting to Document
In healthcare, documentation is essential. If you give medication, assist with care, or observe a change in a patient’s condition, it must be documented. Otherwise, there’s no legal or medical record of it. Use your facility’s charting system consistently and make it a habit to document in real time whenever possible.
Overpromising and Underdelivering
Saying “yes” to every task might seem like a good way to make a great impression, but if you can’t follow through, it can create bigger problems. If you’re running behind or unsure how to complete something, speak up early. For example, let your charge nurse know, “I can take one more task, but I might need help with the wound care dressing.”
Getting Defensive with Feedback
Feedback isn’t a personal attack—it’s a chance to grow. If a supervisor or coworker offers advice, try to listen with an open mind instead of getting defensive. You can say, “Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll keep that in mind next time.” This shows that you’re mature and committed to learning. Remember to note the feedback and refer to it at formal check-ins.
Exceeding Your Scope of Work Unprompted
Wanting to help is great, but doing tasks outside your training or scope can put patients and your job at risk. It can also be disrespectful to your peers who oversee that scope of work. If you have the flexibility to support others, your team lead can assign you to relevant responsibilities.
A good rule of thumb is to follow the chain of command in a hospital and step in when someone asks for help. For any given task, you should know who to report to and who to go to for additional support.
Grow Your Healthcare Professionalism in Virginia Hospitals
Becoming a professional doesn’t happen overnight and involves more than just following rules. At its core, professionalism is about respect, open communication, and accountability. New health workers often mirror their work environment to learn how to behave, but we also recommend finding mentors in other departments and hospitals. This gives you a more holistic perspective of professionalism in healthcare and prevents you from forming bad habits without realizing it.
Build your professionalism and soft skills at Virginia’s hospitals, where we’re known for quality patient care and high performance! Looking for a new place to grow? On Board Virginia collects in-demand job listings from hospitals across the state. Explore our job directory to find your next career!
