The Ecology of Medical Professionalism: Perceived and Emulated, What matters?

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Medical profession has always enjoyed a noble and privileged status in the society. But in the recent decades, there has been a growing concern about infringement of professional values. Medical schools face the pressing need to address this by teaching professionalism to tomorrow's doctors. It is imperative to know the attitude of the millennial students and faculty towards professionalism in order to design the teaching learning activities.Aim of this study is to elicit: the perceptions of professional values by medical students in different Years of medicine (males and females);any change in the attitude of students to professionalism with advancing Years;the perceptions of professional values by Faculty members (preclinical and clinical);the preferred method of teaching and learning professionalism among medical students and staff. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted using the PSCOM 1 (Pennsylvania State College of Medicine) questionnaire. Study population consisted of Year 3 (n=130) and Year 5 (n=120) medical students in a Malaysian Medical University in addition to Preclinical staffs (n=30) and Clinicians (n=26). Results: Students in both Years rated well all the attributes but perceptions of Year 5 students differed significantly from that of Year 3 students in two domains. Senior students showed lower scores in areas of equity (p=0.001) and altruism (p=0.006) than juniors. The overall perceptions of staff were similar but clinicians scored higher than the preclinical teachers in the perceptions of duty, enrichment and respect (Table 4). Role modelling topped the list of the preferred teaching learning activity by the students and the faculty. Seminars were the least preferred option by the students. Conclusion: Students' perceptions of professional values changes with advancing Years. This issue may be addressed by appropriate role modeling by physicians, faculty training in professionalism, case studies in areas of weaknesses and rewarding faculty displaying excellent professionalism. Students and staff have identified role model as the most preferred teaching learning method. The emphasis on teaching tomorrow's doctors should encompass not only evidence based medicine but also the art of medicine with humanistic values.