The Legacy of Teaching Medical Professionalism for Promoting Professional Practice: A Systematic Review

Medical professionalism is a multi-dimensional construct. Teaching the culture-specific, context-based and societal characteristics of medical professional are challenging. This work identifies the teaching strategies for medical professionalism drawn from the published articles that have validated their effectiveness through some objective measures. In May 2016, the databases of ISI web of knowledge, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and MEDLINE were searched for the full-text English-language articles published during 2005 through 2015 using the keywords “Medical professionalism” OR “Role modelling” OR “Teaching and learning” OR “Mentoring” OR “Hidden curriculum” OR “Reflective practice”. This search showed 974 articles and further shortlisting and exclusion of non-relevant material selected 48 articles for detailed analysis in this systematic review. The published work that employed various pedagogies for teaching medical professionalism showed marked heterogeneity. The most powerful and effective strategies with profound impact has been imparted by role modelling, mentoring, hidden curriculum, reflective practice, and by effective communication. Medical faculty can exert positive and exemplary role by practicing with integrity, respect for patients, and altruism. Interactive lecture, vignettes, small group teaching, simulation and videotape reviews have been shown be effective teaching tools. There is no universally agreed model that can effectively integrate the teaching of professionalism in the medical curriculum. However, the professional performance of medical faculty by role modelling in hidden curricula and by delivering key principles of reflective practice and mentoring can potentially inculcate and promote a professionally rich culture among medical students.