In 2002, the European Federation of International Medicine, American College of Physicians, American Society of International Medicine and American Board of International Medicine published Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter – an updated Hippocratic oath.
The charter’s introduction states: “Professionalism is the basis of medicine’s contract with society.” It goes on to identify three fundamental principles for the profession: the primacy of patient welfare; patient autonomy; and social justice.
According to the charter the medical profession must provide justice in the healthcare system, including fair distribution of resources, and physicians should work to eliminate discrimination in healthcare.
The charter speaks directly to individual medical professionals rather than to institutions. So is it time that we museum professionals drew up a charter that defines our own personal responsibilities?
Museums in the UK do not function as a single sector. Nor do we behave as a single profession, but rather a gaggle of disparate occupations, some of which – such as finance officers and marketing staff – have professional standards from beyond the world of museums.
Of course, we want finances to be properly managed, and market research involving children to be conducted with care. But these standards do not relate directly to the core purpose of museums.
We have codes of ethics from the International Council of Museums and the Museums Association. These are clear and tough on the uses and abuses of objects and collections. But where our responsibilities to the public are concerned, they are as savage as the proverbial dead sheep.
Professions ultimately serve the public, occupations ultimately serve their employer. This is not to dismiss the value of occupations, but the most important duty of physicians is the health of their patients, which overrides all other obligations, even those to the organisations they work for.
The physicians’ charter goes far beyond clinical practice to address the wider role of medical professionals in relation to social and economic inequality. Why should this be a core part of the job of a physician, but not of museum staff?
Accepting such responsibility may not be easy, but if museum staff willfully neglect the needs of audiences, it can turn people – particularly those who lack confidence and experience – away from cultural participation, sometimes for life.
Professionalism is the basis of our contract with society. In an increasingly complex and unequal world, we can no longer rely on institutional codes of ethics alone. Individual staff now need a personal charter that guides and supports them in facing the challenges that are to come.
David Anderson is the director of learning and interpretation at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
