Twelve tips for developing professional attitudes in training

This article is based on a workshop run at AMEE Lisbon, building on work from previous conferences and reported in Medical Teacher (Howe, 2002a). The 30 workshop participants were particularly asked to address the question 'What would you consider essential to include in a medical education curriculum that wishes to teach and assess professional development?'. This question was posed without further constraints, ie. regardless of whether undergraduate or postgraduate, the country or situation of the participant, and the type of setting in which they worked. Participants were invited to consider all aspects of the question, and no assumption was made about the need to reach a consensus. The workshop divided into two groups and shared ideas. This paper presents the main emergent points from discussion, for interest and further collaboration; the level of agreement was considerable, consistent with the peer reviewed literature (Howe, 2002b). The conclusions are therefore shared in the 'Twelve Tips' format as a pragmatic framework for those wishing to review their own curriculum with reference to professional development (PD) issues, or when setting up new opportunities.