title: How virtue ethics informs medical professionalism.
abstract: We argue that a turn toward virtue ethics as a way of understanding medical professionalism represents both a valuable corrective and a missed opportunity. We look at three ways in which a closer appeal to virtue ethics could help address current problems or issues in professionalism education-first, balancing professionalism training with demands for professional virtues as a prerequisite; second, preventing demands for the demonstrable achievement of competencies from working against ideal professionalism education as lifelong learning; and third, avoiding temptations to dismiss moral distress as a mere "hidden curriculum" problem. As a further demonstration of how best to approach a lifelong practice of medical virtue, we will examine altruism as a mean between the extremes of self-sacrifice and selfishness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555-0521, USA. sdmccamm@utmb.edu
authors.forename: Susan D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: McCammon
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brody
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000941:ethics*; D028663:Ethical Theory; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D011361:Professional Competence; D028722:Virtues