Skip Navigation

Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 2008 33(1):6-26; doi:10.1093/jmp/jhm003
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Erde, E. L.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Erde, E. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Professionalism's Facets: Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and Nostalgia

Edmund L. Erde

UMDNJ/SOM, Stratford, New Jersy, USA

Address correspondence to: Edmund L. Erde, Ph.D., Family Medicine, UMDNJ/SOM, 42 East Laurel Road, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA. E-mail: erdeel{at}umdnj.edu


  Abstract

Medical educators invoke professionalism as a core competency in curricula. This paper criticizes classic definitions. It also identifies some negative traits of medicine as a profession. The call to professionalism is naive nostalgia. Straightforward didactics in professionalism cannot do the desired work in medical education. The most we can say is that students should adopt the good aspects of professionalism and the profession should stop being some of what it has been. This is a platitude. If the notion is to be more than shallow, each student and practitioner will have to engage in much dialogue, reflection and refinement over many years.

Keywords: competencies, education, ethics, nostalgia, professional, professionalism


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.