ABSTRACT
The move towards professionalisation has increased practitioners’ awareness of professional accountability. Accountability is an aspect of the ethical requirement to act justly and fairly. To be accountable for one’s actions means being prepared to justify them and to take responsibility for their consequences. Professionals are accountable to their clients, their profession, and ultimately, to themselves. In practical terms, being accountable requires practitioners to be able to justify why they acted in a particular way. Since mechanisms for ensuring accountability operate retrospectively, clear, contemporaneous patient records are vital if the practitioner is to remember what action was taken, or what was said and why, and to have a written record as proof. Patient records may be used in evidence in any disciplinary proceedings and practitioners should always make a particular note of any area of disagreement or conflict.
