Medical professionalism matters

#gooddoctors

Niall Dickson

Chief Executive and Registrar

General Medical Council

Our partners

This programme has been developed by the GMC in partnership with an advisory group:

Medical professionalism

Medical professionalism signifies a set

of values, behaviours, and relationships

that underpins the trust the public has in

doctors.

© 2005 Royal College of Physicians of London

The compassionate doctor

#gooddoctors

The compassionate doctor

#gooddoctors

Who are we?

1. Patient or carer/relative

2. Consultant

3. GP

4. Doctor in training

5. SAS/other doctor

6. Medical student

7. Medical educator/trainer

8. Employer (including Responsible Officer)

9. Other health professional

10. Other

3%

38%

10%

14%

5%

5%

6%

3%

5%

13%

Doctors today are less compassionate than 20 years ago. Do you…?

1. Agree – it’s the product of too little time, increasing patient demand and expectations

2. Agree – it’s the product of pressure on organisational performance and management demands

3. Agree – the way we train doctors removes much of the idealism and compassion that attracted them to medicine in the first place

4. Disagree – whatever the pressures, compassion still motivates the vast majority of doctors

5. Not sure

19%

15%

6%

59%

1%

If I were to raise a serious concern in my institution I would be…

1. Reasonably confident that I would be supported by clinical and other leaders

2. Unsure as to whether I would be supported by clinical and other leaders

3. Not at all confident that I would be supported by clinical and other leaders

4. Not sure

59%

23%

15%

3%

Is it possible to teach empathy?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Not sure

59%

35%

6%

Professor Terence Stephenson Chair, General Medical Council

Doctors as professionals

A professional is a highly trained person who

you go to for independent, expert advice or

help and the advice given is not influenced by

the benefit, commercial or otherwise, to the

expert.

Professionalism has both technocratic skills

specific to each profession, which should be

demonstrably up to date, and

generic capabilities - eg communication skills,

honesty, probity, compassion.

Types of Fitness to Practise allegations

What patients and the public tell us they want from their doctor

From 200+ patient responses to GMP consultation 2011/2012

Francis Report

The common culture of caring requires a displacement of a culture of fear with a culture of openness, honesty and transparency, where the only fear is the failure to uphold the fundamental standards and the caring culture.

Francis 2013

Can compassion be taught?

Generic Professional Capabilities

Developed with the Academy

In addition to a mastery of their particular speciality doctors will need to show they are capable of exercising good professional judgement and decision making in complex and uncertain situations, including:

showing insight,

managing risk and complexity and

communicating effectively

Revalidation

Barriers and obstacles

Thank you www.gmc-uk.org

If I were struggling to cope as a result of pressures on the service, I am confident that I could ask for and receive help without being penalised in any way.

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Neither agree nor disagree

4. Disagree

5. Strongly disagree

18%

35%

19%

24%

4%

Don Berwick said the NHS should continually and forever be reducing patient harm by embracing wholeheartedly an ethic of learning. How far is the health system achieving that?

1. Huge progress has been made, though obviously more to do

2. Some progress has been made, a great deal more to do

3. No more than rhetoric, system does not yet realise the extent of change required

4. I don’t agree that’s the way to go about it

5. Not sure

8%

62%

23%

2%

5%

Medicine is a tough career; we need doctors trained to be resilient and better capable to deal with adversity. Do you…?

1. Agree – current selection and undergraduate programmes do not produce students who are adequately prepared for a challenging career

2. Agree – but most of the problems lie in the organisations in which or with which doctors have to work

3. Disagree – doctors are already resilient – the focus should instead be on providing proper levels of support for hard pressed practitioners

4. Disagree – resilience comes largely from experience

5. Not sure

14%

38%

39%

9%

0%

Table discussions

We would like each table to cover one or two of the following topics:

Maintaining empathetic relations with patients

The values of medicine

The values of medical students and how we recruit for these

Small changes can make for more compassionate care

Dinner

Please fill in a card for our solutions wall

The compassionate doctor

#gooddoctors

Question Time Panel

Dr Daniel Baker Welsh Clinical Leadership Fellow

Mark Butler Director, The People Organisation and co-author of Trusted to Care

Professor the Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Chair, The National Council for Palliative Care

Jackie Smith Chief Executive, Nursing and Midwifery Council

Mike Spencer Person Centred Care Lead, 1000 Lives Improvement Service, Public Health Wales

Professor Terence Stephenson Chair, General Medical Council

Continue the discussions at www.gooddoctors.org.uk

Thank you

#gooddoctors