The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7216 p401
21 September 2002

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World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences summary

What makes a good professional?

A good professional is one who complies with all the requirements expected of him or her and then goes an extra mile "just for the hell of it", Ian Caldwell, a former president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, told the congress.

Mr Caldwell was presenting a paper on the characteristics which define a good professional at a meeting of the Administrative Pharmacy Section on 5 September.

He said that what was required of a professional falls into three main groups: absolute requirements, major characteristics and desirable characteristics.

Absolute requirements encompass:

• Knowledge — which is implicit in registration

• Competence — which must be maintained throughout a career

• Confidentiality — which must always be ensured

• Conflict of interest — which must always be avoided

• Learning — which must be life-long and part of life itself

They are required of every professional, are objective and can be measured.

Major characteristics, which, he said, are almost universally expected to be demonstrated by professional people include

• Objectivity — a professional must focus on client need

• Communication —clients must be able to understand professionals

• Trust — mutual trust between clients and professionals is the ideal

• Accountability — an essential component of professional status

• Responsibility — professionals must show personal and public responsibility

• Practice standards — professionals must have the facilities and technology to adhere to practice standards

• Integrity — professionals must only act within their personal expertise

• Honesty — a second essential component of professional status

"All of these are subjective," said Mr Caldwell. "Most of them relate to trust, some can be measured directly and others are measurable only by default. It is debatable whether all these traits can be taught, but they can be encouraged."

The final group, the desirable characteristics, are those which elevate an adequate professional to one who can be called a "good" professional. These characteristics are subjective and are mainly concerned with personality and relationships, Mr Caldwell said. Many of them involve reaching out to other people, to other professional groups, to peer groups and to clients. Some require receptiveness, for example, empathy and a willingness to listen. Some are passive, for example, patience; some are active, for example, inquisitiveness, lateral thinking and motivation.

He added, however, that these desirable characteristics would be difficult to teach at undergraduate level. "Perhaps the best approach would be encouragement at the preregistration training stage followed by mentoring and peer review during the career in practice," he suggested.

Continuing, Mr Caldwell said: "One thing I would warn against in seeking the characteristics of a good professional is to take a list of aspirations like these and then treat them as absolutes. It is highly unlikely that any two people in any profession would exhibit all of these characteristics to exactly the same degree."

It is equally unlikely, he said, that any one professional person would exhibit them in exactly the same way day in, day out. "Pharmacists are normal human beings," he explained. "A fear of change, a death or divorce, financial problems or illness can affect the importance that an individual places on his or her professional role at any given time."

It is also possible, he warned, that professionalism changes with time — the enthusiasm of a new graduate may evolve into ennui in someone about to retire.