ABSTRACT
The working group chose to define the key issues related to the assessment of professionalism by undertaking a discourse analysis. The 18 members of the international working group each submitted two or three references that they considered key articles in assessment of professionalism. During the analysis, which involved classification of articles and discussions among members of the working group, two overarching dimensions emerged in relation to professionalism: scope and epistemology. Authors working with an essentialist perspective view professionalism as a set of inherent personality traits apparent prior to admission to medical school. Assessment of individual characteristics or behaviors is therefore seen as inadequate. Interesting studies in nursing have suggested that nurses may view and evaluate professionalism differently than attending physicians. There was much debate around the issue of how much of what we think of as professionalism or professional behavior is innate, and perhaps fixed, versus what might be malleable or remediable characteristics.
