The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has launched a novel project to foster medical professionalism identity in medical students and health professionals. The project, which has been named 'Project Professionalism Punjab', is based on the idea of narrative writing to enhance self-reflection and empathy, which opens the door for deeper understanding of patients' and health professionals' experiences of illness.
Similarly, it promotes good practices in medicine. In this project, every month one caricatures story, one photograph and one video will be uploaded on UHS website (www.uhs.edu.pk). Medical students, residents and faculty can then write a short story, on the basis of the uploaded content, reflecting their own personal similar experiences and commenting on the best practices in healthcare delivery across the globe and how they would have evolved.
These stories will be evaluated at the end of the month and the best story will be awarded a cash prize. Besides, the top three stories will be published on UHS website. The in-charge of the project, UHS Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Junaid S Khan, said that the basic objective was to examine and understand the development of concepts of professionalism across the learner's lifespan of students, trainees and faculty.
"We also want to understand the influence of environment, society, culture, education, parenting, in essence the social fabric, on the development of the medical professional identity", Professor Junaid expounded adding that it would be first-of-its-kind project in the country. He further said that it would help identifying the threats to medical professionalism, both internal and external.
Professor Junaid is of the view that there is a hidden wealth in reflective writing through narratives, which have promising potential for application in medical education. We hope that every learner will be enriched by this hidden wealth and will learn how to apply it during training and beyond", he urged.
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