Abstract
This chapter will explore professionalism historically, from the work of Gregory and Percival in the eighteenth century to contemporary βnew professionalism.β The chapter will identify how the core traditional values of professionalism, in particular commitments to an other-regarding social ethic and to maintaining high levels of scientifically informed expertise, alongside the defense of professional self-regulation, have been articulated and challenged. Classic accounts of professionalism are found in the work of Durkheim, Tawney, and Parsons. Critics have argued professionalism is in practice self-serving, particularly insofar as a professional ethic has justified the autonomous self-regulation of the profession. Over the last 30 years, responses to the perceived crisis of professionalism β due to the loss of broad public trust in the professions, changes in the nature of professional expertise, and increased demands for external regulation β have precipitated a series of more or less radical responses. New professionalism has now begun to question the desirability of professional autonomy and self-regulation and to articulate a professionalism committed to public engagement and the acceptance of external regulation.
References
ABIM Foundation. American Board of Internal Medicine, ACP-ASIM Foundation. American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, European Federation of Internal Medicine (2002) Medical professionalism in the new millennium: a physician charter. Ann Intern Med 136(3):243β246
American Board of Internal Medicine (1995) Project professionalism. American Board of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia
Arnold EL, Blank LL, Race KE, Cipparrone N (1998) Can professionalism be measured? The development of a scale for use in the medical environment. Acad Med 73:1119β1121
Baker R (1995) The codification of medical morality: historical and philosophical studies of the formalization of Western medical morality in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries volume two: Anglo-American medical ethics and medical jurisprudence in the nineteenth century. Kluwer, Dordrecht
Berlant JL (1975) The profession and monopoly. University of Californian Press, Berkeley
Bledstein B (1976) The culture of professionalism. W. W. Norton, New York
Boyd KM (2005) Medical ethics: principles, persons, and perspectives: from controversy to conversation. J Med Ethics 31:481β486
Crowther MA (1995) Forensic medicine and medical ethics in nineteenth-century Britain. In: Baker R (ed) The codification of medical morality. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 173β190
Cruess SR, Johnston S, Cruess RL (2004) Profession: a working definition for medical educators. Teach Learn Med 16:74β76
Durkheim E (1984) Division of labour in society. Macmillan, London
Durkheim E (1992) Professional ethics and civic morals. Routledge, London
Edgar A (2011) Professional values, aesthetic values, and the ends of trade. Med Health Care Philos 14(2):195β201
Elston MA (1991) The politics of professional power. In: Gabe J, Calnan M, Bury M (eds) The politics of professional power. Routledge, London, pp 58β98
Epstein RM (1999) Mindful practice. JAMA 282:833β839
Epstein RM, Hundert EM (2002) Defining and assessing professional competence. JAMA 287:227β235
Flexner A (1910) Medical education in the United States and Canada: a report to the Carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching, vol 4, Bulletin. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, New York
Frankford DM, Konrad TR (1998) Responsive medical professionalism: integrating education, practice, and community in a market-driven era. Acad Med 73:138β145
Frankford DM, Patterson M, Konrad TR (2000) Transforming practice organizations to foster lifelong learning and commitment to medical professionalism. Acad Med 75:708β717
Freidson E (1970) Profession of medicine: a study of the sociology of applied knowledge. Harper & Row, New York
Freidson E (1994) Professionalism reborn: theory, prophecy and policy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Freidson E (2001) Professionalism: the third logic. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Gregory J (1817) Lectures on the duties and qualifications of a physician. Carey and Son, Philadelphia
Hafferty FW (2002) What medical students know about professionalism. Mt Sinai J Med 69:385β397
Hafferty FW (2006) Definitions of professionalism: a search for meaning and identity. Clin Orthop Relat Res 449:183β204
Hafferty FW, Havighurst CC, Relman AS, Freidson E (2003) Review symposium on Eliot Freidsonβs professionalism: the third logic. J Health Polit Policy Law 28(1):133β172
Irvine D (2014) Patients, their doctors and the politics of medical professionalism: address to members of the American Osler Society. Available from http://www.pickereurope.org/individual-clinician-feedback-is-vital/. Accessed 14 Aug 2014
Larson MS (1977) The rise of professionalism: a sociological analysis. University of Californian Press, London
Leake CD (1927) Percivalβs medical ethics. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore
Leake CD (1970) Percivalβs medical ethics: promise and problems. Ann N Y Acad Sci 169:388β396
Light DW (2010) Health-care professions, markets, and countervailing powers. In: Bird CE, Peter C, Fremont AM, Stefan T (eds) Handbook of medical sociology, 6th edn. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville
Lindemann M (2008) Medicine, medical practice, and public health. In: Wilson PH (ed) A companion to eighteenth-century Europe. Blackwell Reference Online, Oxford. http://www.blackwellreference.com/subscriber/tocnode?id=g9781405139472_chunk_g978140513947212. Accessed 1 Aug 2014
Mechanic D (2000) Managed care and the imperative for a new professional ethic: a plan to address the growing misfit between traditional medical professionalism and emerging health care structures. Health Aff 19:100β111
Parsons T (1939) The professions and social structure. Soc Forces 17:457β467
Parsons T (1951) The social system. Routledge, London
Pattison S, Pill R (eds) (2004) Values in professional practice: lessons for health, social care and other professionals. Radcliffe, Oxford
Percival J (1849) Medical ethics, 2nd edn. Shrimpton, Oxford
Porter R (1997) The greatest benefit of mankind: a medical history of humanity from antiquity to the present. Harper Collins, London
RCGP (1977) Evidence to the Royal Commission on the NHS, Journal of the RCGP 27:197β206
Reed RR, Evans D (1987) The Deprofessionalization of Medicine: Causes, Effects and Responsibiltieis. JAMA 258:3279β3282
SchΓΆn D (1983) The reflective practitioner, how professionals think in act. Basic Books, New York
Secretary of State for Social Services (1975) Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the regulation of the medical profession. Chairman Dr A.W. Merrison. Cmnd 6018. Stationery Office, London
Shaw GB (1909) Preface to βThe Doctorβs Dilemma. Available http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5069/5069-h/5069-h.htm. Accessed 14 Aug 2014
Starr P (1982) The social transformation of American medicine. Basic Books, New York
Sullivan WM (1999) What is left of professionalism after managed care? Hastings Cent Rep 29:7β13
Sullivan WM (2000) Medicine under threat: professionalism and professional identity. Can Med Assoc J 162:673β675
Sullivan WM (2004) Can professionalism still be a viable ethic? Good Soc 31:15β20
Swick HM (2000) Toward a normative definition of medical professionalism. Acad Med 75:612β616
Swing SR (2007) The ACGME outcome project: retrospective and prospective. Med Teach 29:648β654
Talbot JA (2011) Medical professionalism in the new century: accomplishments and challenges in the future for an American medical school. In: Bhugra D, Malik A (eds) Professionalism in mental healthcare: experts, expertise and expectations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 126β138
Tawney RH (1921) The acquisitive society. Bell and Sons, London
Wear D, Aultman JM (2006) Introduction. In: Delese W, Aultman JM (eds) Professionalism in medicine: critical perspectives. Springer, New York, pp. viiβxi
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
Β© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Edgar, A. (2017). Professionalism in Health Care. In: Schramme, T., Edwards, S. (eds) Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8688-1_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8688-1_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8687-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8688-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities