Professionalism and the teaching of clinical medicine: perspectives of teachers and students.

Principles of medical professionalism include humanistic values, altruism, ethical and moral behavior, and a lifelong commitment to scholarship and learning. These principles can provide behavioral guidelines to residents, fellows and their teacher-physicians during the formative years of postgraduate training. This short paper presents some of the challenging professional questions raised during these years of training, where medical professionalism may help to guide us.