Saturday, April 17, 2021

Teaching "Professionalism": a matter of Bioethics?

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For many years and still continues Bioethics debates whether or not the issue of "professionalism" is within its competence.

 Beyond this, it is important to bring it into the arena of debate and especially analyze its relevance for the training of health professionals in the early years of their careers (but not only).

Professionalism is an integral component and goal of medical schools and residency education. Over the past 13 years, the "Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) have spearheaded educational reform in professionalism"*.

Medical ethics and humanities curricula should incorporate assessable goals of medical education that promote the continuous development of professionalism in the physician’s lifelong learning, according with Doukas, David J., et al (2013)*

The authors recommend that such teaching should have five components: 

  1. An effective medical ethics and humanities curriculum builds on what students bring to medical school, especially their prior studies in humanities, informed by work in the social and behavioral sciences.
  2. The goals and outcomes of medical ethics and humanities teaching should emphasize professionalism by explicitly linking educational outcomes to the general competencies, especially professionalism
  3. Medical ethics and humanities education should synchronize with what students are learning in the basic and clinical sciences and with what residents are learning in their rotations. 
  4. Teaching must be assessable for its ability to promote professionalism. 
  5. Medical ethics and humanities teaching materials need to be readily understandable and relevant for the learner in order to promote professionalism education.
I would also add the importance for each professional of examining their competences and their own practices as it relates to professionalism and that this review should frequently be considered within the framework of "Life Long Learning". 

Likewise, that professionalism should not only be a question of initiative as it was raised by C. E. VanZANDT (1990). 

What steps in this direction are your Universities and Academic Centers taking and is professionalism training a common practice?

Best and thanks in advance, 
Irene M


*Doukas, David J., et al. "The challenge of promoting professionalism through medical ethics and humanities education." Academic Medicine 88.11 (2013): 1624-1629.

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Thanks for your comment!! For sure it would foster debates.