Getting and maintaining the best education

We started this exploration of the ethical aspects of professional competence with an important principle – that continued postgraduate education is the way to maintain competence in your chosen sphere of practice. The clinician is presented with a daunting choice of numerous courses offered by a multitude of providers. Some will be run by national medical associations, some by universities and colleges, and others by medical faculties and specialist groups. You will also see private courses run by companies who have a vested interest in selling their range of products.

While it is important that the clinicians who deliver these courses provide an independent view of the subject in a non-biased and objective way, they may be sponsored or paid by companies to deliver postgraduate education to doctors. It is important that you distinguish between what is a thinly-disguised sales pitch and what is fact or genuine scientific opinion. Be prepared to challenge speakers to offer objective evidence-based reasons for their choice. It may just be personal preference but it is important to realise that what works in their hands may not necessarily work in yours.

Being a professional requires competence. It also requires a great deal of critical self analysis and evaluation. You have accepted a great responsibility to deliver healthcare to your patients and you owe it to yourself, the patients and your professional colleagues to meet that responsibility fully prepared and trained by your experience and ongoing education. You need to recognise when your own competence in a given situation is compromised, and you must also be able to recognise suboptimal performance in others and be prepared to take action, if the wellbeing of patients will be compromised. That is what being a professional is all about.

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