Incorporating Professionalism into Medical Education: The Mayo Clinic Experience

Abstract

Professionalism is a core competency of physicians. In this article, the statements of professional societies (e.g., the Charter on Medical Professionalism), the expectations of patients and society regarding professionalism, and a framework for defining medical professionalism are described. The framework's foundation consists of clinical competence, communication skills, and a sound understanding of the ethical and legal aspects of medicine. Rising from this foundation are attributes of professionalism: accountability, altruism, excellence, and humanism. The capstone of the framework is professionalism, or the complete physician. Reasons for teaching professionalism to and assessing professionalism among medical students, physicians in training, and physicians in practice are also described. These reasons include patient expectations; the association between professionalism and improved clinical outcomes (and the association between unprofessional behavior and adverse outcomes); accreditation organization requirements; and observations that professionalism can be taught, learned, and assessed. In addition, methods for teaching professionalism are described (e.g., didactic lectures, discussion groups, simulation, and role-modeling). To ensure that medical students, physicians in training, and physicians in practice are competent in professionalism, they should be assessed for professionalism. Thus, approaches to assessing professionalism are also described (e.g., multiple tools and observers). Professionalism assessments can be used for formative and summative feedback, evaluation of professionalism education programs, and generating hypotheses for professionalism research. Finally, the rich history and culture of clinical excellence and professionalism and specific programs for teaching and assessing professionalism at Mayo Clinic are described throughout this article. Indeed, the Mayo Clinic experience validates professionalism as a core physician competency. (Keio J Med 58 (3) :

Becoming the 'good doctor': medical students’ views on altruism and professional identity

“…Definitions of altruism as determined by action echoes iterations of altruism as a behaviour (Coulter et al, 2007;Glannon and Ross, 2002;Mueller, 2009). However, many students conceptualised altruism as an intention.…”

“…Professionalism has been linked to employee morale and productivity, alongside improved communication and teamwork (Mueller, 2009). Professionalism has also been associated with ensuring patients' trust in doctors (Hilton and Slotnick, 2005).…”

How does the new developed curriculum affect the perception of medical graduates at King Abdulaziz University about professionalism?

“…Now it is clearly known that professionalism results in better patient satisfaction and outcomes, is associated with better clinical proficiency in interns, and predicts the incidence of misconduct and malpractice litigation in future clinical practice. 5,15 The frequency of medical errors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was reported to be on the rise. 14 There are a limited number of studies in the literature regarding professionalism among new medical graduates in kingdom of Saudi Arabia and this study is considered one of the first and few quantitative studies that conducted in one of the largest teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia.…”

“…5 In fact, Wofford et al, reported that most of the patient's complaints are about doctors' behaviour, not their lack of knowledge. 6 These findings emphasized the need to ensure competence in professional behaviours and communication skills.…”

“…7 Promoting professionalism needs expectations, experiences and evaluation. 5 Assessment of professionalism conceptualization can serve in guiding the development of relevant and effective curricular improvements. 8 Currently, there are many attempts to develop meaningful methods to measure professionalism.…”