What is Professionalism?

Professionalism is defined as the active demonstration of the traits of a professional. These traits include: knowledge and skills of the profession, commitment to self-improvement of skills and knowledge, service orientation, pride in the profession, covenantal relationship with client, creativity and innovation, conscience and trustworthiness, accountability for his or her work, ethically sound decision making and leadership. Professional development would then be the process in which a person develops these traits.

Professional development has long been recognized as a key issue in pharmacy education. APhA-ASP has made a commitment to actively promote the professional development of its members. The profession’s attitudes and values must be instilled in students who, as pharmacists, will be responsible for maintaining the continuity of pharmacy as a profession.

The APhA-ASP professionalism initiative is based primarily on findings published in the White Paper on Pharmacy Student Professionalism published in the January/February 2000 edition of the (then) Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association (JAPhA).