Faculty development for learning and teaching of medical professionalism

Professionalism must be explicitly taught, but teaching professionalism is challenging, because medical teachers are not prepared to teach this content area.

This study aims at designing and evaluating a faculty development programme on learning and teaching professionalism in the Arabian context. Programme development: The study used a participatory design, where four authors and 28 teachers shared the responsibility in programme design in three steps: orientation workshop for teachers, vignette development, and teaching professionalism to students. The workshop provided the cognitive base on the salient attributes of professionalism in the Arabian context. After the workshop, authors helped teachers to develop a total of 32 vignettes in various clinical aspects, portraying a blend of professionalism dilemmas. A battery of seven questions/triggers was suggested to guide students' reflection.

The programme was evaluated with regard to its "construct" and its "outcomes". The programme has fulfilled the guiding principles for its design and it has emerged from a genuine professionalism framework from local scholarly studies in the Arabian context. Programme outcomes were evaluated at the four levels of Kirkpatrick's model; reaction, learning, behaviour, and results.

The study communicates a number of context-specific issues that should be considered when teaching professionalism in Arabian culture with respect to teachers and students. Three lessons were learned from developing vignettes, as reported by the authors. This study advocates the significance of transforming faculty development from the training discourse of stand-alone interventions to mentorship paradigm of the communities of learning.

A three-step approach (orientation workshop, vignettes development, and teaching professionalism) proved effective for faculty development for learning and teaching of professionalism. Professionalism can be taught using vignettes that demonstrate professionalism dilemmas in a particular context.