Assessing professionalism in surgeons

Professionalism has been identified as one of four domains of competency for surgical trainees in the UK. This implies that professionalism can be learned and assessed. The priorities of different professions and healthcare systems influence the value placed on different components of professionalism and UK surgeons need to identify the characteristics they would most value as part of an effective assessment process. The success of developing a taxonomy of non-technical skills for surgeons (NOTSS) can guide a similar process for a taxonomy for professionalism assessment. A multitude of assessment instruments for professionalism have been described in the literature but very few are valid, reliable or practical. For surgical trainees a number of assessment tools should be considered. A quantifiable tool using multi-source feedback could be the most practical for clinical surgeons to use. It is important, however, that it is not used to assess isolated behaviours but assess conduct within a surgical community of practice, and that the thinking process behind (un)professional behaviour is also understood, especially in stressful situations.