ABSTRACT
Professionalism is a well-defined competence in the education of residents. However, it is a complex construct, sensitive to social and cultural variables. It can be defined as the necessary skill, good jud gment and appropriate behavior expected of people trained to do their jobs well. It is a competence that does not remain stable over time and declines when the professional is subjected to high levels of stress, associated with quality of care, education, ethics, moral, philosophy and humanism. It is an essential competence for the professional and therefore we must rethink the curricula to include ways to teach and evaluate professionalism. It is essential to design programs that balance the workload with the well-being of future professionals. We must generate an adequate learning environment where the trainee is an active protagonist, and self-care is made visible as an essential competence to maintain the balance between personal and professional life. This article presents a review and reflects on this topic which is becoming increasingly important in the postgraduate training of future specialists.