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Professional Behaviour: What Does It Means?

Article in Education in Medicine Journal · December 2009

DOI: 10.5959/eimj.1.1.2009.c1

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Professional Behaviour: What Does it Means? Education in Medicine Journal, 2009 Vol.1(1): XX XX

COMMENTARY

Professional Behaviour: What Does It Means?

Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff

Medical Education Department, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Introduction return grants the profession a monopoly over

the use of its knowledge base, the right to
Professional behavior is an area of medical considerable autonomy in practice and the
education that has long been of concern to privilege of self-regulation. Professions and their
medical educator. Professional behavior is one members are accountable to those served and
6 14
of the domains of the professionalism and it’s a to society.’
behavior reflection of professionalism. But in
spite of its perceived importance, until recently Professional is defined as ‘related to work you
it has not been actively taught or reliably do as a job. It is often used to mean having the
6
assessed .The purposes of this writing are: qualities that you connect with skilled and
1) To provide appropriate definition of trained people, such as effectiveness, skills,
professional behavior. organization and seriousness of manner. It is
2) To identify characteristics of also used to mean person who has type of job
professional behavior. which is respected because it involve a high
15
3) To identify valid and reliable level of education and skills’ .
assessment tools to assess professional
behavior. Professionalism can be defined generally as the
combination of all qualities that are connected
15.
Definition of professional behavior with trained and skilled people According to
7
Hatem professionalism can be defined as ‘the
The root word of professional or extended set of responsibilities that include the
professionalism came from profession. respectful, sensitive focus on individual patient
Profession is generally defined as any type of needs that transcend the physician’ self-
work which needs a special or particular skill, interest, the understanding and use of the
often one which is respected because it involves cultural dimension in clinical care, the support
15
a high level of education and skill . According to of colleagues, and the sustained commitment to
14
Crues, Johnston and Crues , ‘Profession is an broader, societal goals of medicine as a
occupation whose core element is work based profession.’
upon the mastery of a complex body of
knowledge and skills. It is a vocation in which Behaviour is defined as the way of acting or
15
knowledge of some department of science or behave . Behavior refers to the actions or
learning or the practice of an art founded upon reactions of an object or organism, usually in
it is used in the service of others. Its members relation to the environment, and behavior can
are governed by codes of ethics and profess a be conscious or unconscious, overt or covert,
21
commitment to competence, integrity and and voluntary or involuntary .
morality, altruism and the promotion of the
public good within their domain. These As a conclusion professional behavior can be
commitments form the basis of social contract defined as the appropriateness of somebody’s
between a profession and society, which in action or reaction either intentionally or

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Professional Behaviour: What Does it Means? Education in Medicine Journal, 2009 Vol.1(1): XX XX

unintentionally towards the changes of the  Using concrete practical

environment or condition or situation that situation as a basis for critical
reflect on qualities that are connected to his or self-reflection.
her responsibilities. In other words, professional  Self-confidence
behavior is a reflection of professionalism.  The ability to discuss
shortcomings or failures
Characteristics of professional behavior without losing faith in his or
her own competence.
‘The most common criticism made at present by  Self-welfare
older practitioners is that young graduates have  Of the ability to find a balance
taught a great deal about the mechanism of between work and private life.
disease, but very little about practice of  Provide and receive feedback
medicine – or, to put it more bluntly, they are  Attributing importance to
too “scientific” and do not know how to take what others think about him
17
care of patient.’ (Francis Peabody, 1927) or her conduct.
 Life-long learning
This comment was stated 75 years ago but still  Establishing priorities in
relevant for us today. It reflects both the great learning.
success and a significant failure in medical
17  Resilience
education . Being a good doctor requires not
 Recovering rapidly after a
only good knowledge and skills, but it is also
17 troublesome consultation.
requires professional behaviour . Ginsburg and
 Dealing with mistake
colleagues make a strong case that the key to
 The ability to come to terms
valid assessment of professionalism lies in
with a personal error.
focusing on behaviour. Define professionalism in
16
practical term . As Arnold concluded based on  Dealing with uncertainty
his review, valid assessment of professionalism  The ability to let mild disorder
requires 3 critical issues to be addressed: What run its own course even
should be assessed? How should it be assessed? though he/she has no idea of
Why should it be assessed? .
16 the diagnosis.
 Cope with aggression
Base on Arnold’s conclusion, we have to identify  The ability to deal with
what are the characteristics of professional patients/clients who he/she
behaviour? There are a lot of characteristics of considers troublesome
professional behavior that can be identified (angry).
from the literature. However here we would like 2. Professional behavior towards
to highlight of simple and understandable patients/clients consists of:
classification of professional behaviour  Integrity
characteristics. Professional behaviour o Dealing meticulously with
characteristics can be classified into 4 themes
16 professional secrecy when
which are: speaking with colleagues or
1) Professional behavior towards one-self. acquaintances (somebody
2) Professional behavior towards known).
patient/client.  Detachment and commitment
3) Professional behavior towards other o Take care but not to become
professional/peer. part of the system of the
4) Professional behavior towards public. patient.
 Respect
1. Professional behaviour towards one-self o Taking the opinion of his or
consists of: her patient seriously.
 Self-reflection  Deal with the patient/client diversity
o The ability to deal with
cultural differences in

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Professional Behaviour: What Does it Means? Education in Medicine Journal, 2009 Vol.1(1): XX XX

presentation and experience elements of professionalism as defined by the

10
of complains. American Board of Internal Medicine :
3. Professional behavior towards other 1) Altruism – the essence of
professional/peer consists of: professionalism, in which the best
 Transmural care interest of the patient, not self-interest,
o Dealing correctly with direct is the rule.
questions from other- 2) Accountability
healthcare professional. a. To patients – honoring the
 Cooperation with specialists patient-physician relationship.
o The ability to discuss a b. To society – addressing the
different of opinion with a health needs of the public.
specialist directly. c. To the profession – adhering
 Cooperation with support personnel to medicine’s ethical precepts.
o Choosing the right time and 3) Excellence – a commitment of life-long
place to comment on learning and to exceed “ordinary
functioning. expectation”.
 Leadership 4) Duty – free acceptance of a
o Distinguishing between commitment to service (e.g. advocating
professional and personal best care regardless of payment)
concerns in negotiation. 5) Honor and integrity – consistent regard
 Collegiality for the highest standard of behavior
o Correct transfer of duties and the refusal to violate one’s
4. Professional behavior towards public consists personal or professional codes.
of: 6) Respect for others – including patients,
 Accountability/Responsibility families, other physician, peers and
o Keeping promise and health care professional.
appointment
 Ability to make use of the opportunities From the information above we can conclude
of profession that the elements of professionalism and
o Involving the history of the characteristics of professional behavior are
patient in the provision of care connected and correlated with each other. Now,
 Norms and values we are able to identify the characteristics of
o Awareness of his or her own professional behavior and then, we are going to
norms regarding disease identify assessment tools that available to
influence/the disease assess professional behavior.
management.
 Quality management Assessment tools to assess professional
o Detecting suboptimally behavior
provided care within the 16
practice Ginsburg and colleagues make a strong case
that the key to valid assessment of
 Practice management
professionalism lays in focusing on behaviour.
o The ability to explain
Define professionalism in practical term e.g.
indication for making home
introduces self at first encounters. In summary,
visit
the most common assessment tools used are as
o Evidence-based practice
below:
o Awareness of the meaning and
relative value of scientific  OSCEs and simulated patient-based
10
evidence in decision-making. assessment
o OSCEs have been shown to
Since professional behavior is a reflection of provide reliable and valid
professionalism, here we want to highlight assessment of students’:
elements of professionalism. There are 6  Humanism
 Communication

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Professional Behaviour: What Does it Means? Education in Medicine Journal, 2009 Vol.1(1): XX XX

 Empathy Validity and reliability of assessment tools will

o Both methods are using to increase if the selection of assessment tools is
assess qualities ranging from firstly determined by the context/purpose of the
communication skills to testing situation, increase the number of
cultural sensitivity. assessment task and then make the assessment

10-11
Student peer review or evaluation as objective as possible.
o Reliable and valid to assess
 Interpersonal skill
 Professional References:
behaviour

10
Expansion of evaluators pool 1. Stanley A.H. A plea for professional
o Evaluators may include behavior: North American Society
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 Others skill in design: implication for education
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o Virtual practicum and research, Design Studies, 2002; 23
7
o Reflection (4): 385-406.
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for peer review in performance

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 Professional Behaviour: What Does it Means? Education in Medicine Journal, 2009 Vol.1(1): XX XX

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practice: development of an instrument

Corresponding Author: Muhamad Saiful Bahri bin Yusoff, Lecturer, Department of Medical Education,
School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia.

Email: [email protected]

Accepted: January 2009 Published: December 2009

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