Professionalism in medicine

The Medical Council of Canada recognizes the importance professionalism plays in the practice of medicine. The MCC has diligently worked toward finding effective ways to assess professionalism in candidates taking its examinations.

The MCC has a rich history of assessing non-technical skills in medical practitioners. It first focused on developing ways to assess a physician’s communications skills through its MCCQE Part II examination. As candidates interact with standardized patients in a series of stations as part of this examination, physician examiners evaluate the candidates on a variety of measures, including how well they communicate with the patients. A study has recently concluded that a candidate who receives a low communications score on the MCCQE Part II will be more likely to receive complaints once out in independent medical practice. The next frontier in the assessment of non-technical skills for medical students and graduates is the assessment of professionalism.

While professionalism has always been assessed to some degree in the MCCQE Part II, the Medical Council is now focusing on including professionalism content in the computer-based MCCQE Part I examination. Professionalism questions were first piloted in the MCCQE Part I in spring 2008. Test committees that develop content for the MCCQE Part I will continue to create on a regular basis multiple-choice questions assessing candidates’ professionalism.

The MCC’s Research and Development department, in collaboration with the Working Group on Professionalism and the Professionalism Task Force, has played a pivotal role in:

  • Helping to create an official definition of professionalism
  • Generating a list of behaviours demonstrating professionalism that could be assessed through the MCC’s examinations
  • Analyzing the gaps that existed between the list of behaviours and the ones that were already being addressed in the MCC Objectives

For assessment purposes, the MCC has identified the following areas as contributing to professionalism:

  • Clinical and/or medical administrative competence
  • Communication skills
  • Ethics
  • Adherence to societal and legal duties
  • Commitment to excellence, respect, integrity, empathy, accountability and altruism

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Medical Council of Canada