SEA report from the Task Group on
Professionalism July 2004
Submitted by Kathy Rosen MD
Download information includes a
list
of Professionalism Behaviors
The highlight of the workshop was the unexpected
attendance, inspiration, and participation with enthusiasm
by Dr Pat Surdyk from the ACGME. The Professionalism Task
group began its efforts with the fall 2003 meeting of the
SEA in San Francisco. The morning program and syllabus
reviewed the recent history and definitions of
professionalism in medicine. An expanded working luncheon
was devoted to the operationalization of professionalism
for Anesthesiologists. Dr Ramona Kearney from Canada
moderated the discussion. She has sponsored similar
programs for Anesthesiologists in Canada and Scotland
previously. The notes from that session were condensed and
organized into the document that appeared in the spring
2004 syllabus. The behaviors were grouped under three
headings: character and ethics, citizenship and
self-regulation. Consult the web site for current
professionalism list.
The task group set sequential goals. First goal was to
review the list of behaviors and its organization. The
group recommended placing the character & ethics
section first and adding a brief introduction that
emphasizes altruism as the overarching philosophy. We
added avoids conflict of interest under character and
ethics, subsection honesty and integrity. Self-regulation
subsection reliability & responsibility expanded to
include avoids substance abuse. The
accountability/dependability subsection required
modification of bullet six. "Complies with local,
state, and national laws at all times" became
"Exhibits professional behavior at all times in all
environments".
The second goal was to condense this content into 2-3
professionalism objectives for each heading. The third
objective was to discuss teaching methods for
professionalism and generate a top ten list of topics that
lend themselves to presentation in a didactic format. Role
modeling was viewed as the most important overall method
for teaching professionalism. Other methods were also
found to be useful. General professionalism and specific
ethics and patient care lecture topics were suggested. See
tables below for details.
