Professionalism is a broad competency needed by dentists to act effectively and efficiently and is seen as a central part of both undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. Assessment is vital in education to assess progress and direct future learning. It is also an essential part of good professional regulation, which depends upon high quality assessment to maintain credibility. Educators must produce clear expectations that students can strive for. Thus dental educators are required to understand precisely what is meant by “professionalism” in relation to dentistry in order to both teach and assess it. The aim of this paper is to explain the importance of professionalism, explore its features and its assessment as described in the literature. The paper concludes that without a validated definition of this construct, assessment of professionalism within dental education will be compromised.

Analysis of the interview data reveals that participants conceptualise professionalism as the manner in which one reflects on and reconciles different aspects of professional practice, which demonstrates acceptance of professional responsibility and accountability. It is manifested in the manner in which work is carried out. The definition and model conceptualise the construct of professionalism within dentistry that can be used to derive an educational and assessment system.

This position paper outlines the areas of competence and learning outcomes of "The Graduating European Dentist" that specifically relate to Professionalism. Professionalism is a commitment to a set of values, behaviours and relationships, which underpin the trust that the public hold in dental care professionals. Shortcomings within this domain are often responsible for patient dissatisfaction, concern and complaint-and emphasis is placed on the importance of embedding these values from an early stage within the curriculum.

Objective: A study was set up to assess usefulness and acceptability of a method of assessing professional behaviour of undergraduate dental students. Setting: The first year preclinical course at the Department of Dentistry and Oral Hygiene, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Materials and method: A form was developed with an ordinal scale to assess undergraduate professional behaviour. A standard means of carrying out assessment was then undertaken and subsequently used to give feedback to the students at the end of each of three terms. The students' self-assessment was then compared to that of the staff. Results: Descriptive analysis of the results was carried out per term. The response rate was 80-85%. The significant difference which existed between the scores of students and staff at the start of the study was reduced to reasonable agreement over two of the three criteria. Conclusions: The study indicated that the initial difference in assessment of their professional behaviour by first year dental students and by staff, was reduced by the forms and procedure used. This indicates the usefulness of the procedure as a teaching aid. The high participation rate confirms this to be an acceptable means of assessment of dental students' professional behaviour.

The assessment programme has good internal reliability and validity and suggests that basing an assessment system around the explicit theoretical model is a valuable educational tool.