Medical Professionalism: Conflicting Values for Tomorrow’s Doctors
نویسنده
چکیده
Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. BACKGROUND: New values and practices associated with medical professionalism have created an increased interest in the concept. In the United Kingdom, it is a current concern in medical education and in the development of doctor appraisal and revalidation. OBJECTIVE: To investigate how final year medical students experience and interpret new values of professionalism as they emerge in relation to confronting dying patients and as they potentially conflict with older values that emerge through hidden dimensions of the curriculum. METHODS: Qualitative study using interpretative discourse analysis of anonymized student reflective portfolios. One hundred twenty-three final year undergraduate medical students (64 male and 59 female) from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine supplied 116 portfolios from general practice and 118 from hospital settings about patients receiving palliative or end of life care. RESULTS: Professional values were prevalent in all the portfolios. Students emphasised patient-centered, holis-tic care, synonymous with a more contemporary idea of professionalism, in conjunction with values associated with the 'old' model of professionalism that had not be directly taught to them. Integrating 'new' professional values was at times problematic. Three main areas of potential conflict were identified: ethical considerations, doctor-patient interaction and subjective boundaries. Students explicitly and implicitly discussed several tensions and described strategies to resolve them. CONCLUSIONS: The conflicts outlined arise from the mix of values associated with different models of professionalism. Analysis indicates that 'new' models are not simply replacing existing elements. Whilst this analysis is of accounts from students within one UK medical school, the experience of conflict between different notions of professionalism and the three broad domains in which this conflict arises are relevant in other areas of medicine and in different national contexts.
منابع مشابه
Doctors in society: medical professionalism in a changing world.
Medicine bridges the gap between science and society. Indeed, the application of scientific knowledge to human health is a crucial aspect of clinical practice. Doctors are one important agent through which that scientific understanding is expressed. But medicine is more than the sum of our knowledge about disease. Medicine concerns the experiences, feelings, and interpretations of human beings ...
متن کاملA scoping review of medical professionalism research published in the Chinese language
BACKGROUND The Chinese Medical Doctors Association (CMDA) adopted the Charter of Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium (Charter) and published the Chinese Medical Doctor Declaration (Declaration). This is an important step to re-building medical professionalism in China at a time when the commercialization of health care has led to a decline in physician accountability and public trust ...
متن کاملFostering professionalism among doctors: the role of workplace discussion groups.
BACKGROUND The professionalism of doctors has come in for increasing scrutiny and discussion, within the profession and in society. Professionalism has also become of central interest in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. There is a great deal of debate about the nature of medical professionalism, how to promote it and what approaches to learning are most effective. OBJECTIVE T...
متن کاملA qualitative thematic content analysis of medical students’ essays on professionalism
BACKGROUND Physicians in both Western and Eastern countries are being confronted by changes in health care delivery systems and medical professionalism values. The traditional concept of "In-Sul" (benevolent art) and the modern history of South Korea have led to cultural differences between South Korea and other countries in conceptualizing medical professionalism; thus, we studied medical stud...
متن کامل