Humanism or professionalism? The White Coat Ceremony and medical education.

In this article, the author challenges the widely held assumption that humanism and professionalism are necessarily complementary themes in medical education. He argues that humanism and professionalism are two very different value systems with different rationales, different goals, and different agendas. Whereas humanism is a universal, egalitarian ideology, professionalism represents the parochial, culturally determined practices of a particular professional group that may or may not conform to lay expectations.