SPRING WISRD MAGAZINE, VOL 6, ISSUE 2

class, they then have to contend with professionalism in the workplace, cont inuously fight ing to be taken ser iously and seen as equal. Professionalism is important in unifying pr inciples in medicine and have been histor ically descr ibed as ?the basis of medicine?s contract with society.? Professionalism is a histor ical construct which gained recognit ion in the 1990s, when members of the medical field agreed to uphold a set of ?ethical values and competency standards?that ?the public and individual pat ients can and should expect from medical professionals.?Afterwards, medical professionalism was made a core competency taught at an undergraduate and graduate medical educat ion to govern how members should conduct themselves in public, with pat ients, and with each other. However, professionalism is a fluid and contextual not ion that is often overused and misused. Professionalism is often used to descr ibe the behavior, dress code, language, and hierarchies that are deemed appropr iate in medicine. Histor ically, medical inst itut ions didn?t have women or minor ity groups in leadership and author ity posit ions, which led to professionalism being defined by the heterosexeual, white male ident ity and cultural norms associated with whiteness. That concept of what is deemed professional and unprofessional doesn?t include diverse groups and therefore can be noninclusive and discr iminatory. Thus, the way certain groups dress, eat , and

wear their hair or speak may be deemed unprofessional. With an increase in diversity of the healthcare workforce, it is important to reevaluate and redefine professionalism standards to be applicable to more diverse populat ions and cultures. In a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, they found that underrepresented minor it ies place more importance on professionalism, yet they exper ience it different ly within their organizat ions. It?s believed that the high value these groups place on professionalism stems from feeling like they?re lacking in their work environment and the gap between inst itut ional values and personal exper iences. Part icipants of the study who ident ified themselves as members of marginalized groups expressed violat ions of their professional boundar ies ranging from microaggressions to blatant racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of harassment . These violat ions of professional boundar ies disproport ionately impacted women and gender, sexual, and racial/ethnic minor ity groups. Furthermore, studies show that women in the STEM workforce are significant ly more likely to leave their occupat ion than women with other occupat ions. Researchers at the University of Texas-Aust in sought to find the reason behind this and compared womens? employment trajector ies to those of a

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