Reframing Professionalism: The Virtuous Professional.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. In response to prevalent unprofessional behaviors during the 1990s, the medical school administration at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine developed a student curriculum for professional development, called "The Virtuous Student Physician." However, as students adopted these professional aspirations and attributes, they noted that faculty members were not being held to the same standards. The medical school's senior associate dean for faculty affairs and development convened a task force to reframe professionalism for all faculty, residents, and students. Our first step was to survey our faculty regarding their awareness of the student professionalism curriculum and their own perceived professional weaknesses. This survey showed the following: most faculty members were aware of "The Virtuous Student Physician" curriculum, that faculty members identified social responsibility as the most difficult attribute to achieve, and that the most difficult behavior identified was working to resolve problem behaviors with colleagues. The task force then developed a new curriculum "The Virtuous Professional: A System of Professional Development for Students, Residents, and Faculty." The task force identified three core virtues (Courage, Humility, and Mercy) and reframed the professional attributes encompassed by these virtues to be aspirational for the entire learning community. The faculty of the College subsequently adopted the new principles and practices, including the use of routine, anonymous student evaluation of faculty professionalism. We are currently collecting data from student evaluations of their clinical faculty members. We plan to use this feedback to guide faculty development and recognize those who model exemplary professionalism as well as to address those who engage in unprofessional behavior.

Addressing spiritual concerns in family medicine: a team approach.

Spiritual conflicts and concerns often accompany serious illness, but many family physicians are slow to recognize these concerns or unsure how to address them. The case of a patient with spinal cord injury and who later developed an astrocytoma is used to illustrate a team approach that involved a family physician, a spiritual counselor, and a psychologist. Narrative writing exercises in which the patient was encouraged to tell his own story also played a role in treatment. The case report includes the patient's own description of his experience with spirituality and spiritual counseling, as well as the perspectives of the spiritual counselor.

Commentary: moral growth in medical students.

Knight has shown how the moral growth of medical students involves a spiritual journey. He may, however, present too sanguine a portrayal of the extent to which the medical education environment promotes this moral and spiritual growth. Medical school may indeed be more abusive than supportive. Admitting more women to medical school and teaching more humanities courses, while worthwhile, will not necessarily promote the goals that Knight appropriately advocates.