Despite this, one constant remains. At the core of medical professionalism is the social contract granting a privilege to provide services, underpinned by expert knowledge and skills, ethical conduct and self-regulation. However, professionalism is also a personal thing, and nothing tests a doctor’s professionalism more than the tension between self-interest and the patient’s best interests — i...

Background: Awareness of the motives of the students for choosing to study medicine demonstrates their understanding of the nature of this major and their expectations from their future profession. The evaluation of the volume of students who choose this major with wrong motives is necessary for educational planning of professional commitment. This study was conducted to evaluate the motives of...

BACKGROUND Professionalism topics are usually not covered as a separate lesson within formal curriculum, but in subtler and less officially recognized educational activities, which makes them difficult to teach and assess. Interactive methods (e.g. movies) could be efficient teaching methods but are rarely studied. The aims of this study were: 1) to test the relevance and usefulness of movies i...

Medical romance fiction is a subgenre of popular romance fiction that features medical professionals in their work environment. This essay explores the way professionalism is portrayed in popular medical romance fiction written during the early twenty-first century, a period of significant disruption in both the public image and self-understanding of organized medicine. I analyze a selection of...

BACKGROUND The importance of professional behaviour has been emphasized in medical school curricula. However, the lack of consensus on what constitutes professionalism poses a challenge to medical educators, who often resort to a negative model of assessment based on the identification of unacceptable behaviour. This paper presents results from a study exploring medical students' views on profe...

PURPOSE To assess current education, practices, attitudes, and perceptions pertaining to ethics and professionalism in medical physics. METHODS A link to a web-based survey was distributed to the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) e-mail membership list, with a follow-up e-mail sent two weeks later. The survey included questions about ethics/professionalism education, direc...

This issue of JAMA marks the introduction of a new department: JAMA Professionalism. The goal of the articles in this section is to help physicians fulfill required competencies on this topic. According to the American Board of Medical Specialties definition, professionalism is “...a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles and sensitivity to div...

Concerns about professionalism in medicine have made necessary the explicit teaching and learning of ethics, professionalism and personal development. The noble profession of medicine, taken up as a "calling" by those who are expected to put the needs of the patient above their own, appears to have become a fees-for-service business model and trade. Parental expectations, the diminishing sense ...

Professionalism has been described as the "basis of medicine's contract with society." This article reviews the foundational principles of medical professionalism and, more specifically, defines the nature and scope of radiologists' responsibilities to patients. In the face of ongoing changes in the environment of medical practice, maintenance of professionalism is an adaptive challenge that wi...