Professionalism and Ethics in Medical Education: Teaching Approaches—A Narrative Review

Background: Medical professionalism and ethics are the bedrock of medical education, moulding physicians to be competent, compassionate, and ethical practitioners. These components cover core elements learned and taught through official and clandestine curricula — including honesty, compassion, responsibility, and patient-centred care. Although important, the methods for the best teaching of competency-based education are not well-defined. Materials & Methodology: We performed a systematic literature search in PubMed and Google Scholar of literature published until the beginning of 2025. The keywords included “medical professionalism” and “ethics education.” The main focus of the inclusion criteria focused on original research and reviews that dealt with curriculum design, assessment techniques, pedagogical approaches, and educational outcomes related to professionalism and ethics in undergraduate and graduate medical education. Discussion: Professionalism education must be longitudinally integrated throughout the program across the duration of medical education to be effective. Since affective areas, such as empathy and ethical problem-solving, seem to be poorly taught in traditional lectures, experiential learning resources like case-based learning, reflective text, role playing, and faculty role modelling have been gaining the attention of people. Novel approaches, such as cinema education, have emerged as ways of enhancing involvement with the ethical issues involved in this debate. However, most current evidence is Western-oriented and highlights the importance of culturally appropriate curriculum. In order to sustain professional education and reduce the force of hidden curricula, both institutional support and faculty development are needed. Conclusion: Efforts to formalize professional education can be seen in structured programs like the AETCOM module. Nevertheless, there is disagreement in the field about both pedagogy and the content of the curriculum. Evidence base for making models that link educational interventions to improved patient care outcomes and practice has been developed through stringent, cross-cultural studies. Words: ethics, medical professionalism, teaching methods.