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POLICY
PROFESSIONALISM- WHY IT MATTERS continued from previous page
The veterinary profession is not immune to these examples of behaviours considered unprofessional or lacking in civility. No profession is. How can a profession be proactive in mitigating these undesirable behaviours?
College Council has considered this very question. As part of Council’ s Strategy 2020, addressing professionalism is one of the key objectives: Promote professionalism and self-regulation in the practice of veterinary medicine. There are two tactics to achieve this that Council will work on over the next three years; the first is to define and establish professionalism as an umbrella concept in College initiatives and communications. Under Council’ s direction, the Quality Assurance Committee has begun this work by reviewing the literature on professionalism and contemplating the dialogue on professionalism with veterinarians.
To begin, there is one empirical definition of veterinary professionalism. In 2012, Dr. Liz Mossop produced a grounded theory of veterinary professionalism. The core attribute is“ balance” in 4 main contexts – animals, clients, practice, and society. A series of attributes surround the core attribute and include honesty, altruism, communication skills, manners, confidence and knowing limits, technical competency, efficiency, empathy, decision making, autonomy, and personal values. The medical profession, on the other hand, has done a fair amount of research around medical professionalism. Among the literature on medical professionalism, it is often articulated as a set of values and principles to guide behaviour, and is clearly rooted in the concept of the social contract a profession has with the public to inspire trust and confidence.
Considering this, the Quality Assurance Committee has reviewed the College’ s Code of Ethics, a document that outlines the core values of the profession: compassion, transparency, respect, trustworthiness, professionalism, and competence. It provides a solid foundation for the work on professionalism as it articulates the values that are reflected in a veterinarian’ s ethical conduct and decision-making. These values may also provide guidance for veterinarians’ professional conduct.
When contemplating veterinary professionalism, it is important to consider how it translates into observable behaviours. This can assist with teaching professionalism, assessing it, and remediating unprofessional behavior. At the University of Toronto, professionalism and ethics are taught to medical students, which includes competency-based assessment and a remediation program. Examples of behaviours that would require remediation include failure to keep proper medical records, being disrespectful to patients, as well as, being late to class or handing in assignments, disruptive behaviours( rudeness), and inability to process feedback.
As the conversation on veterinary professionalism begins, veterinarians will increase their attention to this concept, and that is a good thing. Self-reflection is a good place to start and some veterinarians may see themselves as someone whose behaviour may have lacked in civility from time to time. Increasing one’ s conscious awareness of professionalism in their own interactions and those of others is always beneficial. It creates opportunities to practice civility and professionalism with the knowledge of its potential impact on workplace culture, staff morale and productivity, public confidence in the profession, and patient outcomes. The College looks forward to continuing this conversation with the veterinary profession.
References:
Kaufmann, Michael( March, 2014). The five fundamentals of civility for physicians: initiating an important conversation – series introduction. Ontario Medical Review, pages 13-15.
Mossop, Elizabeth.( 2012). Defining and teaching veterinary professionalism. Thesis: University of Nottingham. Retrieved on May 19, 2017 at https:// core. ac. uk / download / pdf / 9404384. pdf
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