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The Issue Of Physician Professionalism

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The issue of physician professionalism has been the subject of heated debate for many years. This is because the term professionalism often has different meanings to different people. While the dictionary’s definition of professionalism is “engaged in one of the learned professions,” in medicine the term goes beyond just being engaged in the medicine profession. This has led some researchers to claim that professionalism is hard to define but easy to recognize. In medicine, professionalism factors in the relationship between medicine and the community and constitutes the foundation of the trust between the patient and physician. According to Coulehan (2005), professionalism attempts to bring to light certain attitudes, behaviors, and …show more content…

Professionalism and communication are critical components of the medical field as the two combine to form a spirit of teamwork, which in turn offers quality care to patients. The challenge is that none of the qualities, which form professional behavior, are inborn. In addition to this, the skills are affected by both internal and external processes something that creates a scenario where most physicians lack professionalism (Stern, 2006). Naturally, a lot of the mistakes that clinicians make come from the assumption that the transition from the classroom to the hospital makes one qualified to care for patients. In most cases, medical schools impart students with the necessary knowledge to be a physician and most of it is by following examples and by trial and error. However, things have changed, and today professionalism is not just about being able to treat the patient, but it is also inclusive of how the patient and physician interact during the treatment period. This is important as each small gesture by the physician can be translated either in the right or the wrong way by those around him (Inui, 2003). While in medical school, students must be taught on just how to treat patients, but on how to set expectations as well. Ideally, most physicians do not know how to disclose test results to patients as this is not something that is

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