Professionalism — The Next Wave

In their Medical Education article in the October 26 issue of the Journal, Stern and Papadakis make a number of observations about professionalism and the learning environments in which medical training occurs.1 Like a growing number of medical educators, they recognize that considerable learning (some think most) takes place outside the domain of the formal curriculum and that such learning involves indoctrination in the unwritten rules of studenthood and medical practice. Some medical schools and residency programs have acknowledged the existence of alternative, or shadow, domains of learning, whose lessons are sometimes collectively called the “hidden curriculum,” and have accepted . . .