Teaching and learning of professionalism in early health professions education

Abstract

The goal of undergraduate health care curricula is to nurture the development of students who will become health care professionals with the necessary skills, behaviours and attitudes expected of the profession, in order to serve the community and to provide quality patient care. But what does this mean? What does this look like in action? And how does it relate to students just beginning their medical and health professions education journey before they have ever encountered a patient? We will use the HKU undergraduate experience with the “Professionalism in Practice Programme” to consider the role of the clinician in nurturing professionalism among medical students and junior colleagues, to explore how to translate educational evidence about the teaching and learning of professionalism into practice when interacting students in the clinical setting, and to discuss professionalism in the context of the students’ level of expertise and experience. This workshop is geared towards health care professionals interested in, or engaged in teaching students and trainees, and no prior experience in this area is necessary.