(This competency is weighted ~10% of your overall clerkship evaluation.)
There are many components to professionalism including altruism, ethical behavior, the pursuit of excellence, the ability to accurately assess oneself, and accountability. For a more detailed discussion of this, I encourage you to look at the ABIM’s Professionalism Charter at
http://www.abimfoundation.org/professionalism/pdf_charter/ABIM_Charter_Ins.pdf and the AMA’s Code of Ethics at www.ama-
assn.org/ama/pub/category/2512.html.
As you can imagine there is controversy surrounding whether these qualities can be taught this far into your education. I believe that you all possess the foundation of these qualities. However, I do think there are ways we can help you apply them more effectively to patient care or at least help you resist the erosion of these values, which unfortunately happens all too often when faced with the realities of “the system”.
Self-assessment and reflection are two areas of focus during this clerkship. The following are some suggested ways to practice this and demonstrate your competence in the portfolio format. The first two are requirements of the portfolio.
- Reflective writing (required)
- Formative feedback session with self-assessment (required)
- Journaling
- Parallel charting
- Peer evaluations
