Professionalism

The Royal College of Physicians in consultation with other medical colleges listed, in order of priority, six 'pillars of professionalism'...

• Integrity
• Compassion
• Altruism
• Continuing improvement
• Excellence
• Working in partnership with the wider team

PRIME has asked groups of healthcare professionals around the world to identify their pillars of professionalism and found that these values are common to every culture and nation.

Surprisingly, healthcare teaching continues to emphasise knowledge above compassion, career pathways above altruism and seldom includes these pillars of professionalism, these values, that PRIME believes underpin the science and practice of healthcare the world over and form the basis of the contract between the healthcare profession and society.

Integrity, compassion and altruism in particular are seldom found on medical school curricula, but are central to all PRIME teaching.

"There were discussed questions which were never discussed before." A PRIME delegate