Defiance, compliance, or alliance? How we developed a medical professionalism curriculum that deliberately connects to cultural context

Abstract

Based upon our experience and reflection, we offer some practical methods for integrating local cultural values and societal needs in professionalism education.

Humanism, the Hidden Curriculum, and Educational Reform

“…61,62 The structure and nature of these reform initiatives range from embedded curricula that attempt to engage students in humanismbased exercises and experiences throughout the four years of their undergraduate medical training, to episodic reflection exercises and onetime/stand-alone short-term seminars. A few articles suggested exposing medical students to more humanities-specific disciplines (e.g., history, art, music, philosophy) [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70] ; however, almost all reform-based efforts featured in the literature strove to promote individuallevel humanistic attributes (e.g., empathy, compassion, integrity, respect). Although medical students are the primary target of programmatic reform efforts, there are also initiatives designed to promote humanistic traits and behaviors among medical school faculty and staff.…”

Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Medical Professionalism among Students and Junior Doctors in Trinidad and Tobago

“…It describes the norms, values and beliefs that are demonstrated by the behaviour of clinical staff but may not be necessarily verbalized. Recognizing this and the changing role of the doctor in society resulting from demands by the general public for a doctor who is more empathetic, better able to communicate and more willing to do so, a committee was established at our institution to consider the issues surrounding medical professionalism within the Caribbean and how best to implement formal training within this area (6).…”

Building a professionalism framework for healthcare providers in China: A nominal group technique study

“…There is no dispute that medical professionalism is crucial as professional and regulatory organizations require the incorporation of medical professionalism into professional codes and training programs (Medical Professionalism Project 2002; ACGME-International 2010; Liaison Committee on Medical Education 2010). However, how to establish elements of medical professionalism and how to teach and assess them remains controversial (Wilkinson et al 2009;Hafferty & Castellani 2010;Tsai et al 2012) and limited to Western literature.…”