The cognitive base of professionalism should be taught throughout
the continuum of medical education (Box 15.2).
Learning the cognitive base can be facilitated through lectures
(to provide frameworks, definitions and stimulate curiosity),
small groups (to explore personal interpretations and biases),
problem-based learning or collaborative learning formats using case
studies as the stimulus. Every physician must understand the nature
of professionalism, its role in sustaining medicine’s relationship to
society, the obligations necessary to maintain this relationship and
the consequences of failing to meet these obligations