ABSTRACT
An important aspect of maintaining and handing on professional values and expertise is for the trainee and the trainer to be with one another over time. The virtues of professionalism are demonstrated, acquired, and encouraged, more than taught and learned. The factual information required for professional practice can be transferred by seminars, written word, demonstrations, lectures, and so on. A professional is likely to nurture their own and others' professionalism if they are respected for their practice. The organisation that employs the professional "knows" that quantity will be purchased at the expense of quality. The professional is likely to be placed under pressure to reconcile the irreconcilable. High-level denial of the irreconcilable conflict between quality and volume, and the Batesonian double bind that it places around professionals and their probity, is likely to become the single biggest threat to professionalism.
