[Working with courage and trust]

Diminished trust in professionals has resulted in professional pain among many of them. Professionals feel obstructed by external stakeholders such as policymakers and insurance companies who do not understand the reality in which professionals work. Protests by professionals against this type of disciplining have been diminishing for a long time, and some professionals have even collaborated with these stakeholders. In many professions, this has resulted in so-called 'voluntary servitude'. For instance, it has been stated that the majority of professionals in health care deviate from their standards of professional behaviour to a greater or lesser degree. This attitude of distrust towards professionals unjustly injures their professional pride. In this paper the concept of professional pride is explained and the authors argue why this is crucial for good healthcare.