Assessment of professionalism and ethics

Professionalism is the new buzz word in medical education and practice. The MCI Revised Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2017 emphasize the role of Indian Medical Graduate as a professional who is ethical, responsive, caring, compassionate, committed to excellence and accountable to patients, profession and community at large. A plan is underway to introduce Attitude Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) modules as a part and parcel of MBBS curriculum. However, how to translate this laudable plan in to action requires further deliberations. The purpose of this article is to identify a comprehensive strategy for assessing professionalism. Teaching and assessment of professionalism are quite challenging. A combination of both objective and subjective tools is needed for giving credibility to the assessment. Continuous documentation and internal assessment coupled with portfolio approach can play a key role in assessment of these competencies.