Albert Dzur proposes an approach he calls "democratic professionalism" to build bridges between specialists in domains like law, medicine, and journalism and the lay public in such a way as to enable and enhance broader public engagement ...

Over the past decade, a number of accounting and financial reporting frauds have led to lost stock wealth, destroyed public trust, and a worldwide recession that called for necessary reform. Regulatory responses and systemic reforms quickly followed, and we show that, while necessary, these reforms are insufficient. The purpose of this paper is to forward virtuous professionalism as a necessary path toward restoring financial reporting systems. We take the position of external observer and analyze the accounting profession over time (...) to assess what has transpired within our financial reporting systems. Our analysis reveals that the combined influence of commercialism and regulatory response has led to a systemic decline in accounting’s professional ideals and, as a result, an erosion of public trust. We then propose virtuous professionalism as a necessary process for restoring financial reporting systems based on sociological, professional, and philosophical theories. We argue that virtuous professionalism is necessary for restoring the public servant identity of the accounting professional. We conclude that efforts to restore financial reporting systems should begin with reforms that restore professional identity shaped by virtues. (shrink)

Training in ethics and professionalism is a fundamental component of residency education, yet there is little empirical information to guide curricula. The objective of this study is to describe empirically derived ethics objectives for ethics and professionalism training for multiple specialties. Study design is a thematic analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups conducted in a setting of an academic medical center, Veterans Administration, and community hospital training more than 1000 residents. Participants were 84 informants in 13 (...) specialties including residents, program directors, faculty, practicing physicians, and ethics committees. Thematic analysis identified commonalities across informants and specialties. Resident and nonresident informants identified consent, interprofessional relationships, family interactions, communication skills, and end-of-life care as essential components of training. Nonresidents also emphasized formal ethics instruction, resource allocation, and self-monitoring, whereas residents emphasized the learning environment and resident-attending interactions. Conclusions are that empirically derived learning needs for ethics and professionalism included many topics, such as informed consent and resource allocation, relevant for most specialties, providing opportunities for shared curricula and resources. (shrink)

Residency training in the Netherlands is to be restructured over the coming years. To this end a general competence profile for medical specialists has been introduced. This profile is nearly the same as the Canadian CanMEDS 2000 model, which describes seven general areas of medical specialist competence, one of which is professionalism. In order to establish a training programme for residents and their instructors based on this competence, it is necessary to develop a vision that does justice to everyday (...) medical practice. The two most prevailing views of professionalism—as personal, or as a behavioural characteristic—fall short of this. Only when professionalism is understood as reflective professionalism does it encompass the fundamental contextuality of medical treatment. This means that the focus of training and assessment must be shifted to accountability for treatment. (shrink)

BackgroundThe process of peer-review in academia has attracted criticism surrounding issues of bias, fairness, and professionalism; however, frequency of occurrence of such comments is unknown.MethodsWe evaluated 1491 sets of reviewer comments from the fields of “Ecology and Evolution” and “Behavioural Medicine,” of which 920 were retrieved from the online review repository Publons and 571 were obtained from six early career investigators. Comment sets were coded for the occurrence of “unprofessional comments” and “incomplete, inaccurate or unsubstantiated critiques” using an a-prior (...) rubric based on our published research. Results are presented as absolute numbers and percentages.ResultsOverall, 12% (179) of comment sets included at least one unprofessional comment towards the author or their work, and 41% (611) contained incomplete, inaccurate of unsubstantiated critiques (IIUC).ConclusionsThe large number of unprofessional comments, and IIUCs observed could heighten psychological distress among investigators, particularly those at an early stage in their career. We suggest that development and adherence to a universally agreed upon reviewer code of conduct is necessary to improve the quality and professional experience of peer review. (shrink)

Background: Social media has become an integrated part of nursing profession, requiring nursing students to develop confidentiality and professional fitness to practice. The aim of this study was to investigate nursing students’ usage, professionalism and attitudes toward social media. Methods: A cross-section study was conducted online among undergraduate nursing students (n = 654). Questionnaires of self-directed learning, self-efficacy and usage and views toward social media were administered. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Hubei University of Chinese Medicine. (...) Results: All participants were social media users. QQ (93.2%) was the most frequently used. 74.5% respondents spent 2–6 h on social media daily. The majority held positive attitudes toward social media. Year group and gender had influence on perceptions and attitudes toward social media. Furthermore, 81.5% students believed that social media positively influenced self-directed learning. Self-directed learning and learning motivation acted as predictors of the attitudes toward social media. Meanwhile, 67.3% students had posted personal photos and videos online, and 82.4% of them did not have privacy setting on social media. In addition,13.8% students attacked others or posted improper photos online. 22.9% participants witnessed improper posts from schoolmates or teachers, such as complaints about schoolmates or teachers (22.2%), foul language (11.1%), violence (3.9%), sexually suggestive photos (2.6%) and patient confidentiality (0.7%). In all, 15.0% respondents accepted “friend request” from patients. A total of 58.2% students were not aware of professional standards of behavior online for health care providers. In addition, 52.3% participants insisted that it is essential to develop social media and professionalism course for nursing students. Conclusion: Nursing students use social media extensively. Some students are at risk of carrying out unprofessional behavior which have detrimental effects on students’ future opportunities. This suggests that best practices and training in nurse education should be implemented to help students to be informed of professionalism. (shrink)

As in other societies, medical professionalism in the Peoples’ Republic of China has been rapidly evolving. One of the major events in this process was the endorsement in 2005 of the document, “Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter,” by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association (hereafter, the Charter). More recently, a national survey, the first on such a large scale, was conducted on Chinese physicians’ attitudes toward the fundamental principles and core commitments put forward in the (...) Charter. Based on empirical findings from that study and comparing them to the published results of a similar American survey, the authors offer an in-depth interpretation of significant cross-cultural differences and important transcultural commonalities. The broader historical, socio-economic, and ethical issues relating to salient Chinese cultural practices such as family consent, familism (the custom of deferring decisions to family members), and the withholding of medical information, as well as controversial topics such as not respecting patients’ autonomy, are examined. The Chinese Survey found that Chinese physicians supported the principles of the Charter in general. Here we argue that Chinese culture and traditional medical ethics are broadly compatible with the moral commitments demanded by modern medical professionalism. Methodologically and theoretically—recognizing the problems inherent in the hoary but still popular habit of dichotomizing cultures and in relativism—a transcultural approach is adopted that gives greater (due) weight to the internal moral diversity present within every culture, the common ground shared by different cultures, and the primacy of morality. Genuine crosscultural dialogue, including a constructive Chinese-American dialogue in the area of medical professionalism, is not only possible, but necessary. (shrink)

Medicine is in a very self-reflective mood. There is a revival of interest not only in medical ethics but also in medical history, the Hippocratic corpus, and various kinds of literature that indicate physicians are reexamining the foundations of medicine and what it is that gives meaning to medicine. That is, they are reexamining the physician's vocation, in the true sense of vocation as a calling. This interest has coincided with the concern of third parties such as accreditation agencies about (...) the professionalism of physicians. (shrink)

The first six chapters of our text laid the ethical foundations for modern pharmacy practice. We considered fundamental ethical theories as well as competing ideas of human value. We then reviewed clinical ethics in historical context, beginning with the ancient traditions of the Hippocratic Oath, to which we added the eighteenth century principle of autonomy. Our historical analysis then examined some terrible departures from these standards in the twentieth century, including the flawed pseudo-science of eugenics and the horrific excesses of (...) Nazi medicine. We concluded the opening chapters by looking at the Tuskegee syphilis trials and the Willowbrook hepatitis study, abuses that both helped to provide the impetus for the 1979 Belmont Code and the development of modern institutional review boards. We now conclude this foundational section with the tenets of pharmacy professionalism, as exemplified in the Ethics Code of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). Later chapters will then lead us into practical matters in the form of issues and cases. (shrink)

Building a coherent discourse on professionalism is a challenge for corporate social responsibility (CSR) practitioners, as there is not yet an established knowledge basis for CSR, and CSR is a contested notion that covers a wide variety of issues and moral foundations. Relying on insights from the literature on micro-CSR, new professionalism, and Boltanski and Thévenot’s (1991/2006) economies of worth framework, we examine the discourses of 56 CSR practitioners in South Korea on their claimed professionalism. Our analysis (...) delineates four distinct discourses of CSR professionalism—strategic corporate giving, social innovation, risk management, and sustainability transition—that are derived from a plurality of more or less compatible moral foundations whose partial overlaps and tensions we document in a systematic manner. Our results portray these practitioners as compromise makers who selectively combine morally distant justifications to build their own specific professionalism discourse, with the aim to advance CSR within and across organizations. By uncovering the moral relationality connecting these discourses, our findings show that moral pluralism is a double-edged sword that can not only bolster the justification of CSR professionalism but also threaten collective professionalism at the field level. Overall, our study suggests paying more attention to the moral relationality and tensions that underlie professional fields. (shrink)

In this issue of CQ, we are pleased to inaugurate a new Department, Professionalism, with an article by Jeffrey Blustein entitled “When Doctors Break the Rules: On the Ethics of Physician Noncompliance.” The article examines the ethical dilemmas physicians face when they believe that promoting the best interests of patients requires them to break one or more institutional rules.

Is it time to leave the non-professional aspects of personal life at the door and face patients as medical professionals and no more?Ever wondered about the appropriateness of Christian doctors displaying pictures of Pope Benedict, Muslim doctors displaying pictures of Osama son of Laden or former PLO leader Yassir Arafat, or gay doctors proudly flying the rainbow flag in their rooms? I suggest that we should be concerned about such display of religious, political, or other allegiance to non-professional causes in (...) loci of health care delivery.Let us take a step back, however, and ask why we seek health care professionals’ help or assistance. Our reasons have, of course, primarily to do with doing our fair share by way of enabling health care delivery services to achieve their primary objectives for being in existence, namely to ensure that we live as long as is feasible at as high a quality of life as is possible. While legitimate questions may be asked about acceptable trade-offs between length and quality of life, broadly speaking, that is what we expect health care providers to do for us. Importantly, we expect them to do so in a professional manner. This is very much in line with the historical roots of the idea of professionalism, meaning essentially to profess publicly to serve the public good.1 The public …. (shrink)

For more than two decades, classes on “professionalism” have been the dominant platform for the non-technical socialization of medical students. It thus subsumes elements of previous foundation courses in bioethics and “medicine and society” in defining the appropriate relation between practitioners, patients, and society-at-large. Despite its importance, there is, however, no clear definition of what “professionalism” entails or the manner in which it serves various purported goals. This essay reviews, first, the historical role of the vocational practitioner in (...) society, and second, the introduction of “professionalism” as a newly constituted, core value in teaching. The structure of the paper is as an archaeology, a Foucauldian term for an investigation of seemingly separate but related antecedent contexts and ideas whose result is a perspective or point of view. The goal thus is an attempt to precisely locate “professionalism” within the greater history of medicine and its contemporary role in medical socialization. (shrink)

In part one of this paper I discuss how issues of combatant misconduct and illegality have led military academies to become more focused on professionalism rather than on the tensions between military ethics and military training. In order to interrogate the relationships between training and ethics, between becoming a military professional and being a military professional, between military professionals and society, I turn to the work of Martin Cook, Anthony Hartle, and J. Glenn Gray. In part two I focus (...) on Cook’s analysis of the conflict between the self-understanding and the expected behavior of military professionals. In part three I focus on Hartle’s analysis of how the experience of alienation by military professionals can help to create the culture of military professionals. In part four I introduce a new theory of professionalism based on the existential and phenomenological philosophy of J. Glenn Gray, which can help us to better understand the philosophical and psychological stakes of what it means to become a military professional. I conclude in part five by suggesting that the most pressing issue in the military is not a lack of professionalism, but a lack of trust. (shrink)

A collection of personal narratives and essays, Living Professionalism is designed to help medical students and residents understand and internalize various aspects of professionalism. These essays are meant for personal reflection and above all, for thoughtful discussion with mentors, with peers, with others throughout the health care provider community who care about acting professionally.

A collection of personal narratives and essays, _Living Professionalism_ is a casebook of experiences within medicine that demonstrate professionalism in action. Designed to help medical students and residents understand and internalize various aspects of professionalism, this volume contains personal stories from medical school professors, practitioners, patients, and students about the importance of professionalism in medical practice. These essays are meant for personal reflection and above all, for thoughtful discussion with mentors, with peers, with others throughout the health (...) care provider community who care about acting professionally. (shrink)

The AMA’s social media guidelines provide physicians with some basic rules for maintaining professional boundaries when engaging in online activities. Left unanswered are questions about how these guidelines are to be implemented by physicians of different generations. By examining the issues of privacy and technological skill through the eyes of digital natives and digital immigrants, the challenges associated with medical e-professionalism become clear.

This report takes a broad approach to answering the overarching question, "How can the U.S. Air Force best improve the professionalism of its personnel?" The authors examine the definition of professionalism and what it means in the Air Force. They then look at past actions the Air Force, the U.S. Department of Defense, and other U.S. military services have taken dating back to the last substantial Air Force initiatives related to professionalism. In the absence of objective metrics (...) specifically intended to measure professionalism, the authors examined statistics of cases in which professionalism was lacking, as evidenced by documented violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. For subjective metrics, the authors looked at trends in attitudes related to professionalism from surveys of civilian federal employees and uniformed service members. They then examined a selection of courses and seminars to understand the Air Force learning opportunities currently being offered and how they relate to the Air Force strategic road map for professionalism and instructional practices more conducive to building Air Force professionalism. Finally, the authors examined the literature on organizational culture and change to identify how the Air Force might effect changes on this dimension. The report offers key findings and conclusions from these investigations and provides recommendations for further actions to support the effort to enhance professionalism across the Air Force."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

이 글의 목적은 전문직의 정체성, 이른바 프로페셔널리즘(전문직업주의, professionalism)을 심도 있게 규명함으로써 통합적 관점에서의 전문직윤리의 중요성을 살피는 것이다. 구체적으로는 프로페셔널리즘에서 전문직윤리로 이행하는 과정에서 규범적 필요성을 강조함으로써 우리 사회에 적실한 전문직윤리의 가능성을 살펴볼 것이다. 해당 전문직종사자 간의 피할 수 없는 생존경쟁이 격화되고 있는 현실에서, 이른바 전문직의 희소가치가 감소 추세에 있는 오늘의 상황에서 프로페셔널리즘과 전문직윤리는 어떤 의미를 지니는가? 직업적 영향력과 경제적 보상이 전문직의 권력(professional power)을 구성하는 가장 큰 요소라고 할 때, 그 권력이 뚜렷하게 약화되고 있는 지금의 상황은 과연 통상적인 윤리(ordinary Morality)의 수준을 (...) 넘어서는 전문직윤리의 가능성을 확보할 수 있는가? 이 글은 전문직윤리를 통합적으로 다루면서 이러한 질문에 대한 답변의 실마리를 찾아볼 것이다. (shrink)

The AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) has initiated an important discussion on medical professionalism and the use of social media by issuing thoughtful and practical guidance for physicians and medical students. The implications of online activities for trust in the profession, as well as for trust between patient and doctor, however, will need further exploration as digital life expands and evolves.

Professionalism requires that physicians uphold the best interests of patients while simultaneously insuring just use of health care resources. Current articulations of these obligations like the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's Physician Charter do not reconcile how these obligations fit together when they conflict. This is the problem of dual agency. The most common ways of dealing with dual agency: “bunkering”—physicians act as though societal cost issues are not their problem; “bailing”—physicians assume that they are merely agents of (...) society and deliver care typically based on a strongly consequentialist public health ethic; or “balancing”—a vaguely specified attempt to uphold both patient welfare and societal need for judicious resource use simultaneously—all fail. Here I propose how the problem of dual agency might begin to be addressed with rigor and consistency. Without dealing with the dual agency problem and getting more specific about how to reconcile its norms when they conflict, the expectations of professionalism risk being written off as cute, nonbinding aphorisms from the medical profession. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article aims to conceptualise and reimagine the notion of nursing professionalism in two different contexts. Utilising a critical reflexive approach whilst drawing on salient theories, concepts, and studies on professionalism, I will consider my professional journey from that of a mental health nurse within the NHS to that of a nursing lecturer within a research‐intensive university. The paper highlights that, at its worst, the gendered lens of what I term, old professionalism, may alienate some professions, (...) nursing in this case, over others. It may also create stigmatising attitudes towards those who choose professions that do not fit with gendered norms. At its best, ideas around professionalism can provide helpful ways to conceptualise and make sense of professional nursing work as seen in more democratic, interdependent, collaborative and degendered notions of what I term new professionalism, and connective professionalism. The paper also argues that education‐focused nursing lecturers may feel fragmented due to competing tensions and in lacking credibility in undertaking research. Two responses to these predicaments are offered. The first can be characterised by expanding and reimagining the professional self as a connective professional who reconciles and navigates multiple identities and discourses within the period and context in which they work. The second calls for education‐focused lecturers to engage in discursive creation by creating new knowledge, networks, and opportunities and to deploy these in the service of others. Binary or dualistic divisions appear throughout this paper in different guises and help to elucidate some of the problems associated with nursing professionalism and professional work. In particular, the ineluctable hegemony of cultural codes of masculinity are discussed in their function to make some nurses feel unprofessional, prevent autonomous working through the demands of neoliberal managerialism, and favouring positivist knowledge over interpretive approaches to knowledge creation. (shrink)

In this cross-sectional observational study, we wanted to assess the viewpoints of residents and medical students about applicability of official professionalism recommendations in the emergency department. We asked 72 participants to fill a questionnaire, which was designed based on “the directory of professional ethics for physicians” written by Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The questionnaire consisted of 74 statements divided into 6 different categories: altruism, honor and integrity, justice, respect, duty and responsibility, and excellence. The mean and median of (...) responses in PGY1 group were significantly more than PGY2/3 and medical students. These rates were nearly the same between PGY2/3 and medical student groups. We concluded that in a chaotic environment like the emergency department, it is important to know whether healthcare providers believe in the applicability of any professionalism recommendations or not. Our recommen... (shrink)

Why should engineers behave ethically? Often, an answer to this question is sought in the qualification of engineering as a “profession”, and professional or-ganizations have codes of ethics that members should comply with. In many countries however, engineering is organized differently. In this chapter broader conceptions of “professionalism” are explored, inspired by similar evolutions in other occupational areas. A second part questions the idea that professionalism encompasses ethical responsibilities “beyond ordinary morality”. The thesis will be defended that, although (...) there may be specific rules for “professionals”, the philosophical foundation of professional ethics yet rests on ordinary morality. (shrink)

Genomics has impelled us to “bring the family into the room where bioethics happens” (Gordon and Koenig 2022). Among other things, this means considering how the principle of mutuality (Knoppers 20...

Referring mainly to theories of transformation engineering, this article focuses on an experimental vocational training system bringing together special education teachers in initial training, under apprenticeship contracts and in employment. It uses the issue of the construction of emerging professionalism to analyze the formation of legal skills among educators. This contribution offers a broader vision of the conditions that make this learning possible, pointing to their effects on the feeling of personal effectiveness. The analysis of the traces collected makes (...) it possible to highlight the role of the relational circles around the learner in a professional situation. These results are discussed in the light of work on legal socialization and aim to identify the skills forming a "legal professionalism" specific to the educator, and for which training modalities are suggested. (shrink)

We agree with McCullough, Coverdale and Chervenak1 that ‘medical educators and academic leaders are in a pivotal and powerful position to role model’ to counter ‘incivility’ in medicine, which can include ‘dismissing’ or ‘demeaning others’. They note that ‘women may be at greater risk for experiencing incivility compared with men’, as may other individuals who experience ‘patterns of disrespect based on minority status’. The authors promote ‘professionalism’ and ‘etiquette’ to foster civility within medicine. Yet theory and experience suggest that (...) medical educators and academic leaders are also in powerful positions to mobilise these concepts to perpetuate exclusions from, and biases within, medicine, upholding racist, sexist and ableist norms. Feminist methodology reveals how ethical theorising historically excluded views and experiences of marginalised individuals and groups and provides frameworks for interrogating supposedly universal norms. Presuming dominant values and experiences reflect universal ones can further marginalise already oppressed groups and individuals. A feminist analysis reveals how ‘professionalism’ or ‘etiquette’ are historically shaped by white or male identity and experience, including norms of attire, hair, accessories, speech or behaviour. Part of the hidden curriculum of medicine becomes intuiting how leaders implicitly or explicitly define ‘professionalism’. McCullough et al define ‘professionalism’ in medicine as ‘sustained commitments to scientific and clinical excellence… making the protection and promotion of health-related interest the physician’s primary concern …. (shrink)

The proliferation of news and information sources has motivated a need to identify those providing legitimate journalism. One temptation is to go the route of such fields as medicine and law, namely to formally professionalize. This gives a clear method for determining who is a member, with an array of associated responsibilities and rewards. We argue that making such a formal move in journalism is a mistake: Journalism does not meet the traditional criteria, and its core ethos is in conflict (...) with the professional mindset. We thus shift the focus from whether the person is journalist to whether the work satisfies the conditions that characterize legitimate journalism. In explaining those conditions we also look at mechanisms for enhancing the power of persons doing journalism, drawing upon lessons from the labor movement. We also consider a self-declaration model while urging increased literacy from all participants in the news gathering and consuming enterprise. (shrink)

As one of the main competencies, professionalism is to be taught and evaluated during the residency period. The aim of this research is to investigate the professionalism perception among medical residents of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 using Persian Professionalism Questionnaire American Board of Internal Medicine (American Board of Internal Medicine). Probability proportional to size sampling was used to recruit the participants (n = 250). Data analysis was done using SPSS24 (...) through descriptive and analytical statistics. The mean age of residents was 33.28 (SD = 5.56). About 46% of residents were not familiar with professionalism. Mean of perceived professionalism score by the residents was to be 6.85 (of 10) ± 1.52. Honor/Integrity dimension with a score of 7.53 ± 2.1 had the highest mean, while professional excellence with a score of 6.2 ± 1.43 had the lowest mean. No statistically significant relationship was observed between residents’ demographic characteristics and perceived professionalism. Medical residents’ professionalism perception was not at an acceptable level. It is necessary to spread the concept of professionalism in the form of formal and informal training programs to promote residents’ professional behaviors. Moreover, it was experienced that peer to peer observation could be used to assess professionalism in the working environment. (shrink)

Community health workers (CHW) are the backbone of the public health system in developing countries. Little is known about the practice of ethics and professionalism in their work. This study was conducted to explore the experiential wisdom of ethics and professionalism among CHWs in Tamil Nadu. We conducted a qualitative study among 125 CHWs in six districts of Tamil Nadu. We found that the CHWs went beyond the call of their duty to do good to the community. Their (...) conceptualization of autonomy ranged from shared to full paternalistic decision making. The CHWs were sensitive to issues of privacy and confidentiality, but the discussion on these topics were limited. They reflected the societal norms of gender, class, and caste hierarchies in their work. They had to work amidst difficult power struggles and had their own innovative strategies to subvert power. In conclusion, there is a need for framing a code of ethics and professionalism for CHWs and training in ethics and professionalism for them to help them effectively deliberate on ethical issues. (shrink)

Since public schooling was introduced in the nineteenth century, teachers in many western countries have endeavoured to achieve professional recognition. For a short period in the latter part of the twentieth century, professionalism was seen as a discourse of resistance or the ‘enemy’ of economic rationalism and performativity. However, more recently, governments have responded by ‘colonizing’ professionalism and imposing ‘standards’ whereby the concept is redefined. In this study, we analyse transcripts of interviews with 20 Queensland teachers and conclude (...) that teachers’ notions of professionalism in this second decade of the twenty-first century are effectively reiterations of nineteenth century disciplinary technologies (as proposed by Michel Foucault) yet are enacted in new ways. (shrink)

This article examines the (bio) ethical and professionalism issues that may arise in the context of medical practice in low and middle income countries (LAMIC), and the challenges this poses for medical regulatory bodies in the regions, in upholding ethics in professional practice. A quadrangle of source of the problems given rise to the breach of ethics in medical practice is identified, and suggested steps, based on ethical principles and concept, is proposed towards the resolution of the problems presented. (...) As LAMIC progress to improve the health of its population, this endeavour should occur hand in hand with contemporary medical ethics theories, taking in context the region’s ethnographic and cultural beliefs and practices. (shrink)

Engineering societies such as the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and associated entities have defined engineering and professionalism in such a way as to require the benefit of humanity (NSPE 2009a, Engineering Education Resource Document. NSPE Position Statements. Governmental Relations). This requirement has been an unnecessary and unfortunate add-on. The trend of the profession to favor the idea of requiring the benefit of humanity for professionalism violates an engineer’s rights. It applies political pressure that dissuades from inquiry, (...) approaches to new knowledge and technologies, and the presentation, publication, and use of designs and research findings. Moreover, a more politically neutral definition of engineering and/or professionalism devoid of required service or benefit to mankind does not violate adherence to strong ethical standards. (shrink)

Common morality has been the touchstone of medical ethics since the publication of Beauchamp and Childress's Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979. Rosamond Rhodes challenges this dominant view by presenting an original and novel account of the ethics of medicine, one deeply rooted in the actual experience of medical professionals. She argues that common morality accounts of medical ethics are unsuitable for the profession, and inadequate for responding to the particular issues that arise in medical practice. Instead, Rhodes argues that (...) medicine's distinctive ethics should be explained in terms of the trust that society allows to the profession. Trust is the core and starting point of Rhodes' moral framework, which states that the most basic duty of doctors0is to "seek trust and be trustworthy." 0Building from this foundation, Rhodes explicates the sixteen specific duties that doctors take on when they join the profession, and demonstrates how her view of these duties is largely consistent with the codes of medical ethics of medical societies around the world. She then explains why it is critical for physicians to develop the attitudes or "doctorly" virtues that comprise the character of trustworthy doctors and buttress physicians' efforts to fulfil their professional obligations. Her book's presentation of physicians' duties and the elements that comprise a doctorly character, together add up to a cohesive and comprehensive description of what medical professionalism really entails. Rhodes's analysis provides a clear understanding of medical professionalism as well as a guide for doctors navigating the ethically challenging situations that arise in clinical practice. (shrink)

The rapid emergence and exploding usage of online social networking forums, which are frequented by millions, present clinicians with new ethical and professional challenges. Particularly among a younger generation of physicians and patients, the use of online social networking forums has become widespread. In this article, we discuss ethical challenges facing the patient–doctor relationship as a result of the growing use of online social networking forums. We draw upon one heavily used and highly trafficked forum, Facebook, to illustrate the elements (...) of these online environments and the ethical challenges peculiar to their novel form of exchange. Finally, we present guidelines for clinicians to negotiate responsibly and professionally their possible uses of these social forums. (shrink)

Throughout the book, Bennett offers a variety of thoughtful suggestions on recovering and strengthening the collegium. He also describes the key intellectual and moral virtues that lie at the heart of the academy's mission to advance learning. Specific strategies for implementing this relational model within the academy are provided, with special attention to the constructive role that chairpersons and deans can play.

Written by specialist practitioners with vast teaching experience, this is a unique, timely and accessible text that reinforces a contemporary focus on professionalism in medical practice.

Background Professional communities such as the medical community are acutely concerned with negligence: the category of misconduct where a professional does not live up to the standards expected of a professional of similar qualifications. Since science is currently strengthening its structures of self-regulation in parallel to the professions, this raises the question to what extent the scientific community is concerned with negligence, and if not, whether it should be. By means of comparative analysis of medical and scientific codes of conduct, (...) we aim to highlight the role of negligence provisions in codes of conduct for scientists, and to discuss the normative consequences for future codes of conduct. Methods We collected scientific and medical codes of conduct in a selection of OECD countries, and submitted each code of conduct to comparative textual analysis. Results Negligence is invariably listed as an infraction of the norms of integrity in medical codes of conduct, but only rarely so in the scientific codes. When the latter list negligence, they typically do not provide any detail on the meaning of ‘negligence’. Discussion Unlike codes of conduct for professionals, current codes of conduct for scientists are largely silent on the issue of negligence, or explicitly exclude negligence as a type of misconduct. In the few cases where negligence is stipulated to constitute misconduct, no responsibilities are identified that would help prevent negligence. While we caution against unreasonable negligence provisions as well as disproportionate sanctioning systems, we do argue that negligence provisions are crucial for justified trust in the scientific community, and hence that there is a very strong rationale for including negligence provisions in codes of conduct. (shrink)

Religious considerations and language do not typically belong in the professional advice rendered by a doctor to a patient. Among the rationales mounted by Greenblum and Hubbard in support of that conclusion is that religious considerations and language are incompatible with the role of doctors as public officials.1 Much as I agree with their conclusion, I take issue with this particular aspect of their analysis. It seems based on a mischaracterisation of what societal role doctors fulfil, qua doctors. What obliges (...) doctors to communicate by means of content that is expressed in public reason-based language is not that they are public officials. Doctors as doctors are not necessarily public officials. Rather, doctors have such obligations, because they are professionals. Unlike public officials doctors are part of a profession that is to a significant extent self-governing. This holds true for all professions. The …. (shrink)

R S Downie; Professions and Professionalism, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 24, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 147–159, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-.

Objective We conducted a process evaluation to (a) assess the effectiveness of a new problem-based learning curriculum designed to teach professionalism and scientific integrity to biomedical graduate students and (b) modify the course to enhance its relevance and effectiveness. The content presented realistic cases and issues in the practice of science, to promote skill development and to acculturate students to professional norms of science. Method We used 5-step Likert-scaled questions, open-ended questions, and interviews of students and facilitators to assess (...) curricular effectiveness. Results Both facilitators and students perceived course objectives were achieved. For example, respondents preferred active learning over lectures; both faculty and students perceived that the curriculum increased their understanding of norms, role obligations and responsibilities of professional scientists. They also reported an increased ability to identify ethical situations and felt that they had developed skills in moral reasoning and effective group work. Conclusions These data helped to improve course implementation and instructional material. For example, to correct a negative perception that this was an ‘ethics’ course, we redesigned case debriefing activities to reinforce learning objectives and important skills. We refined cases to be more engaging and relevant for students, and gave facilitators more specific training and resources for each case. The problem-based learning small group strategy can stimulate an environment whereby participants are more aware of ethical implications of science, and increase their socialisation and open communication about professional behaviour. (shrink)