Transcript Slide 1

Professionalism in Medical Education
Neera Khilnani
John Luk
José Gonzalez
Virginia Niebuhr
UTMB Pediatric Grand Rounds
Sept 14, 2007
Case
Dr. A. Tending, a Pediatric faculty member,
received her MyUTMB summative evaluation
from the residents she had supervised on wards
over the past year.
Her overall score is near the group mean,
which pleases her.
But her score on Professionalism is a 6.7,
a full point lower than the mean of 7.7.
Does this really mean she is she less professional
than her colleagues?
What criteria are the residents using in rating her?
Case
The next day, Dr. T. has an In-Box message:
“Please evaluate Dr. Rezi Dent for the rotation
ending last week”
Dr. T. knows this involves the 6 ACGME competencies:
Patient Care
Medical Knowledge
Professionalism
Systems Based Practice
Practice Based Learning
Interpersonal Skills/Communication
She wonders how to accurately identify
the professionalism competency of a resident.
Does this 9-point Likert scale suffice?
Is a radio button sufficient, or is comment needed?
It’s also time to evaluate a medical student
who has just completed a 4th-year elective.
One of the categories is Professionalism.
Dr. T. was only directly supervising this student
for four half-day sessions.
The student was on time and very pleasant.
But there must be more
on which to base this evaluation.
She wonders how can she evaluate professionalism?
At Faculty meeting this week, the program director
reviewed some requirements of the ACGME:
Program Directors are required to certify
that each graduating resident is competent
in the domain of Professionalism.
Understanding that program directors do not have
opportunity to work individually with each resident
in a clinical setting, Dr. T. wonders what information
program directors use to certify competency in
Professionalism.
The RRC also requires each program to provide:
• “documentation of teaching of Professionalism.”
Dr. T. ponders “Can professionalism truly be taught,
or just learned?”
• “written evaluations of a resident’s professional behavior
by patients/families and members of the healthcare team
based on direct observation.”
Dr. T. wonders, “Are we doing this?”
• “discussion of critical incidents (especially positive or
negative behaviors) must be part of the ongoing
mentoring of every resident.”
Again, Dr. T. considers this information.
In addition to resident requirements,
the RRC has requirements for Faculty:
• The program must annually evaluate
faculty performance as it relates to education.
• Evaluations should include review of faculty’s
clinical knowledge, scholarly activities,
and professionalism
• Evaluation must include annual written confidential
evaluations by the residents
Dr. T. wonders “Do residents know how to evaluate
faculty professionalism?”
Dr. T. decides to check a new resource
to see if it will help her understand
this pervasive concept of professionalism.
She looks at Professionalism in Pediatrics,
a new resource linked to
the UTMB Pediatric Medical Education website.
Professionalism
• Concept of professionalism pervades
medical education from many angles
• Is it is easy as :
“You’ll know professionalism when it’s present, and
you’ll certainly recognize when it’s absent.”
• Do we really understand the concept?
Objectives for Today
Our objectives are that you will :
• Consider how complex is ‘professionalism’
in medical education
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Consider how we can define “Professionalism”
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Learn something about a new resource:
Professionalism in Pediatrics
History of Professionalism
in Medical Education
mid-to-late 1990’s
• recognition that medicine's commitment
to the patient was being challenged by
external forces of change in society
(e.g. managed care, healthcare financing
challenges)
• increased call for renewed sense of
professionalism
Professionalism Project
Amer. Board of Internal Medicine.
1990 – 94
Chair, Dr. John Stobo
(later to become UTMB President)
Goals
• Define professionalism
• Raise consciousness of concept of professionalism
• Provide means for including concepts of
professionalism in residency training
• Develop strategies for assessing professionalism
of residents & fellows
Professionalism Charter Project
1999 – 2002
• American College of Physicians – American Society
of Internal Medicine
• American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation
• European Federation of Internal Medicine
Result:
Physicians’ Charter, Lancet, 2002
Physicians’ Charter
Fundamental principles
• primacy of patients' welfare
• patients' autonomy
• social justice
A set of 10 professional commitments to..
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professional competence
honesty with patients
patients' confidentiality
maintaining appropriate relationships with patients
improving quality of care
improving access to care
just distribution of finite resources
scientific knowledge
maintaining trust by managing conflicts of interest
professional responsibilities
Major initiatives to teach professionalism
as a core competency
and to require measurement
1. GEA (Group on Educational Affairs) of AAMC
Project Professionalism: Assessment
2. ACGME
(Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education)
ACGME Outcomes Project
Major initiatives, cont.
3. ABP (American Board of Pediatrics)
requires assessment of professionalism
in final evaluation of residents/fellows
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separate from clinical competence
certification from program director
4. ABP
requires evidence of professionalism
in board re-certification process
Major initiatives, cont.
5. ABP Program Directors Committee &
APPD (Assoc. of Pediatric Program Directors)
developing a resource document to include …
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issues relevant to professionalism in clinical care
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statements describing exemplary conduct
& lapses in professionalism
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objectives related to professionalism in the
curriculum
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teaching strategies
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methods & tools for assessing professionalism
Professionalism Initiatives at UTMB
1997 Stobo became UTMB President
2000 UTMB Professionalism Board
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clinical, administrative & educational leadership
mission: promoting culture of professionalism
Professionalism Initiatives at UTMB, cont.
• Diversity Council
• Matriculation Ceremonies
– Student Honor Pledge Day
– White Coat or Pin Ceremonies
• Graduation Activities
– SON: Florence Nightingale Ceremony
• UTMB Professionalism Charter (2005)
• Gold Humanism Honor Society Chapter (2005)
• Professionalism Project Awards (2006)
Professionalism Award
to Dept. Pediatrics
• Team: Niebuhr, Khilnani, Luk, Gonzalez
• Goal:
to develop a resource which might help
improve our evaluation of professionalism
• Awarded Summer 06
• First step in our process - defining the term
Defining Professionalism
Be Specific:
• We advise parents to avoid
a vague requirement to “be good”
• Similarly, should we avoid a vague
expectation to “be professional”?
Prism Analogy:
Defining Professionalism
Nine constructs, drawn from
• the ACGME
• the Gold Humanism Foundation
• UTMB Professionalism Charter
Defining Professionalism
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Compassion
Honesty
Altruism
Responsibility
Aiming for Excellence
Confidentiality
Teamwork
Ethical approach
Respect
Compassion
• Compassion (empathy; awareness of
other’s feelings and experiences)
– sympathetic recognition of another’s
distress with the desire to alleviate it.
Honesty
• Honesty (truthful and sincere)
– fairness and straightforwardness of
conduct
– includes admission of mistakes/errors
Altruism
• Altruism
– unselfish concern for the welfare
of others
Responsibility
• Responsibility
– taking pro-active accountability for
one’s actions and their consequences
– for conduct, work obligations, and
self-improvement
– synonym: duty
Aiming for Excellence
• Aiming for excellence
– striving to perform at the highest
standards of the profession
– in self, others, and the system of
healthcare
Confidentiality
• Confidentiality
– to hold secret all information relating to
a patient (unless consents to disclosure)
– recognizing the importance of privacy of
patient information,
– adhering to rules of discretion regarding
patient information (e.g. HIPAA)
Teamwork
• Teamwork
– combining individual efforts in a
synergistic way to reach the common
goal of thorough, quality patient care
Ethical Approach
• Ethical approach
– adherence to ethical principles of
• patient autonomy
• beneficence
• non-maleficence
• justice
Respect
• Respect
– to show politeness or deference to
patients/families, colleagues, team
members and faculty
– to show regards for or to have an
appreciation of someone or something
– includes respect for diversity
The Resource
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Rationale
Goals
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We can do better than
“You’ll know it when
you see it
and you’ll know
when it is absent.”
a resource to promote thinking about
concept of professionalism
promoting the practice of reflection
an outcome possibly useful for
evaluating professionalism
Galveston-Austin collaborative
• Desired or Required Elements
– Integrated
(not a rotation or specifically scheduled)
– Any-time, any-place
– For faculty and residents
– Involving reflection: private and public
– With a system for tracking utilization
CHARACTER
C ompassion
H onesty
A ltruism
R esponsibility
A iming for excellence
C onfidentiality
T eamwork
E thical Approach
R espect
Design and Access
1. Nine Modules
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one for each letter of CHARACTER
thought-provoking readings
accessible from WebCT: Pedi 1001 Professionalism
2. Synthesis/Application/Challenge Activities
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submitted through WebCT Assignment Drop-Box
contributors can expect feedback from the authors
3. Observations & Reflections
Challenge to identify, for each of the nine components,
examples of professional behavior or lapses of
professionalism (in self or others)
Participants
• Residents:
– adopted as required competency demonstration
for interns in our UTMB Pediatric residency programs:
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Categorical Pediatrics - UTMB-Galveston
Categorical Pediatrics - UTMB-Austin
Combined Medicine-Pediatrics
Combined Pediatrics-Dermatology
• Faculty
– encouraged to complete series within one year
of beginning participation in Residency education
• link to Pediatric Education Page
• link to Professionalism in Pediatrics
• WebCT
A Concept within a Concept
• Professionalism in Health Care
• Professionalism in Medical Education
Return to Case
• 2 months later….
– Dr. T had time to reflect on the CHARACTER
acronym
– She helped her resident mentee complete
Professionalism in Pediatrics
– She now feels more comfortable with
the concept of Professionalism
– She discovered and read the
AAMC Resident/Faculty Compact
and shared it with her department
AAMC Resident-Faculty Compact
• A pledge and a reminder….
The purpose of the Compact
is to provide institutional GME sponsors,
program directors and residents
with a model statement
that will foster more open communication,
clarify expectations and
re-energize the commitment
to the primary educational mission
of training tomorrow’s doctors.”
www.aamc.org/residentcompact