{"id":73164,"date":"2025-12-01T14:16:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T06:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/?post_type=issues&p=73164"},"modified":"2026-04-07T08:21:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:21:42","slug":"rethinking-professionalism-a-plural-not-singular-concept","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/rethinking-professionalism-a-plural-not-singular-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking professionalism: A plural, not singular, concept"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/doi.org\/10.29060\/TAPS.2026-11-1\/TT005<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Tim Wilkinson<\/p>\r\n

Professor of Medicine and Medical Education,<\/em>
\r\nDean’s Department (Christchurch),<\/em>
\r\nUniversity of Otago, New Zealand<\/em><\/p>\r\n

\u201cMy student is not very professional.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cThey failed their OSCE station because they need to be more professional.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the best tool to assess professionalism?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These kinds of comments and questions are common in medical education – and they reflect an unhelpful tendency to treat professionalism as a singular, all-encompassing trait. In reality, professionalism is not one thing. It\u2019s many things. It\u2019s time we started talking about professionalisms – plural.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A student might be honest but disorganised. Another might communicate beautifully with patients but struggle to take feedback from colleagues. Being professional in one domain doesn\u2019t mean being professional in all. Just as we wouldn\u2019t assess clinical knowledge with a single multiple-choice test, we can\u2019t evaluate or develop professionalism with a single lens.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In my systematic review (Wilkinson et al., 2009), I found that while definitions of professionalism vary, most can be clustered into five broad domains:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \r\n\t
  1. <\/span>Ethical practice \u2013 Honesty, integrity, and respect for confidentiality.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. <\/span>Interpersonal behaviour with patients and families \u2013 Empathy, rapport, communication.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. <\/span>Teamwork and collaboration \u2013 Collegiality, accountability to the wider health system.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. <\/span>Reliability \u2013 Following through, being prepared, respecting deadlines.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  5. <\/span>Commitment to improvement \u2013 Reflectiveness, lifelong learning, system contributions.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

     <\/p>\r\n

    Different cultures, institutions, and disciplines may emphasise some of these more than others, but none of them captures professionalism alone. What matters most is not drawing hard boundaries, but being clear and specific – with ourselves, our colleagues, and our students – about which dimensions we are referring to in a given context.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    When we shift from thinking about professionalism as a singular trait to seeing it as a set of behaviours and commitments that evolve over time, we create more space for growth.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Here are some useful questions to ask ourselves:<\/span><\/p>\r\n