Professionalism in medicine

de Delese Wear

"Professionalism in Medicine: Critical Perspectives" is a brilliant collection of essays that responds to platitudinous notions of medical professionalism with theoretical clarity and curricular innovation. Drawing upon a wonderful wealth of scholars in the medical humanities, this inspirational volume seeks to transcend reductionistic conceptions of professionalism that are too easily mistaken for the real thing, simply because they are amenable to measurement. This incisive anthology will be savored by all who want to bring qualitative balance to a ‘professionalism movement’ that has often conflated quantitative assessment with cogent analysis." Joseph J. Fins, M.D., F.A.C.P., Chief, Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Author, "A Palliative Ethic of Care: Clinical Wisdom at Life's End." "This book makes a welcome and important contribution to the ongoing dialogue and debate about professionalism in medicine. The contributors, all distinguished authorities and experienced medical educators, challenge current constructs and suggest new approaches to understanding, teaching and evaluating professionalism. The provocative ideas presented range from the theoretical to the pragmatic. Professionalism in Medicine will engage the interest of medical educators and practicing physicians, sociologists and philosophers." Herbert M. Swick, M.D., Executive Director, Institute of Medicine and Humanities Professionalism has become a part of the contemporary academic medicine parlance, with the stakeholders focus on what has become a consistent list of attributes deemed to be the essence of professionalism: variations on altruism, duty, excellence, honor and integrity, accountability, and respect. This collection of essays steps outside this focus. Its contributors ask different questions, including how the specialized language of academic medicine and its affiliated governing and accrediting institutions define, organize, and contain the attitudes, values, and behaviors subsumed under the label "professional" or "professionalism." Each essay questions the profession’s beliefs about the nature of its work and how such beliefs are enacted (or not) in medical education and practice. Anyone involved in decision-making in the undergraduate medical curriculum will find this book thoughtful, at times provocative, and in the end, useful.