Implementing A Professionalism Program for a Pediatric Residency Program

Abstract

Abstract Designing a curriculum and demonstrating competency in the domain of professionalism is of utmost importance. This resource is a novel, longitudinal curriculum that introduces important themes from the professionalism literature, and provided our residents with a forum to share their thoughts and experiences about professionalism in a safe and supervised setting. We opted to integrate this curriculum into the noon conference time offered on a quarterly basis. We divided all of our residents into groups of 10, spanning all levels of training. Each group is paired with one or two faculty members who went through a faculty development seminar where this curriculum was introduced. Using the cases provided, we aimed to address the following topics: introduction to professionalism, professionalism and clinical care, professionalism and stress, and professionalism and society. During each session, the residents are encouraged to bring up their own cases and experiences for discussion. This curriculum also includes a faculty development piece to assist faculty with facilitating discussion amongst residents. We evaluated the curriculum using a qualitative analysis of takeaway points written by the residents. Our curriculum succeeded in introducing the important themes of professionalism. We were excited to find that a number of residents commented that they learned a skill, behavior set, or an approach that they will employ in the future as a result of these sessions.

Keywords

• Curriculum
• Education
• Medical Education
• Professionalism
• Pediatrics