Is it possible to be passionate about what you are doing and yet be considered a professional? That depends on how one perceives a professional and how that passion is expressed.

The term 'profession' came into use in the 1800's to define a person who had a profound knowledge of a subject, usually in the scientific field, and had turned to making it his full-time occupation. Before then most people pursued their interests alongside their normal occupation.

In its pure form the word is applied to someone who has academic qualifications
and expert specialist knowledge, often with excellent manual or practical skills
producing a high quality of work.Of greatest importance should be a high standard of ethics – right conduct which demonstrates dignity both of the professional themselves and towards those they to hope to reach.

In its altruistic form there is a desire to empower people with knowledge and skills to enable them to live a life worth living, giving them competence and confidence. Communication is simple with no jargon and understood by the uninitiated. There is openness and transparency. People are treated with respect and dignity. There is caring and empathy, coming alongside and drawing near, giving autonomy and independence and seeing the whole person.

However professionalism has turned in on itself with professional bodies becoming self-regulatory and self-congratulating, using jargon which excludes and having disdain for those who differ or are ignorant. Peer recognition seems foremost in their endeavours. When professionals talk more to themselves about themselves than to or about their patients their focus has become inward looking and self-serving. As one said to me 'I didn't come here just to treat patients'.

As the need for data spirals out of control we seem to need more and more invasive information. This unasked for intrusion into people's lives perhaps fosters distance between the interviewer and the interviewee. In order to depersonalise the interview a distance must be retained which professionalism provides.

When dealing with the uninitiated they produce dependency and impotence. They preserve a distance and remain aloof, often paternalistic. Processes, procedures and policies developed to regulate the system tend to foster cold clinicalism and discourage empathy. This becomes synonymous with professionalism. Feelings are not compatible with systems and seldom cost-effective. This would seem to rule out passion.

How best to counter it?

The need to enable competent, independent living on the part of the receiver of the knowledge should be uppermost. The knowledge should be presented in the simplest form, understood by the uninitiated. Recent research on human behaviour has concluded that such interaction should be fun and popular. There is a place for passion which can have a tremendously motivating effect. This will sound at variance with what has come to be considered professional and will possibly encounter disapproval. Some call it 'professional heresy.' In order to counter this accusation there should be clear reasoning to support this approach. We will need intellectual courage.

There is a place for passionate professionalism. It is a sound knowledge of the subject combined with an ability to communicate and an earnest desire for the well-being of those it is intended to reach, at all times treating them with respect.

As Thomas Aquinas put it, it is a relationdship where there is discipline combined with a 'graceful playfulness'