Faculty development for teaching and assessing residents’ professionalism

The teaching of professionalism, a key aspect of medical competence that regulates physician’s behavior towards patients, colleagues, society, and self, should be included in the curriculum of every training program. Studies suggest a variety of formats to teach and evaluate professionalism in residents, being role modeling, reflection, case discussions, and 360-degree assessments the most commonly used. However, little is published about the need to train faculty for teaching and evaluating professionalism, or how to improve institutional culture, so that principles that are indicated to teach in theory are also fulfilled in practice.