Nurturing the Virtues: Upholding Professionalism in the Midst of Busy Medical Practice

Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress' (B&C) book Principles of Biomedical Ethics is well known for its four-principle approach to biomedical ethics. However, the authors also emphasize the importance of the virtues of health care personnel. After a short overview of virtue ethics, the five "focal virtues" described by B&C are discussed and applied to a chronic pain example. The question of how virtues are learned in the health care setting is addressed, and it is argued that virtues such as the ones defended by B&C are acquired when health care personnel are socialized in an environment dedicated to the continuous upholding of practices that aim at the telos of medicine. Viewed from this perspective, professional isolation can be considered to be dangerous; the upholding of medical professionalism throughout a whole career largely presupposing the existence of a community where virtues relevant to the practice of medicine are embodied and kept alive. The concept of professional socialization is important in that respect. Finally, some potential general implications of this view for continuing professional development are proposed.