Etiquette for medical students’ email communication with faculty members: a single-institution study

Abstract

BackgroundEmail is widely used as a means of communication between faculty members and students in medical education because of its practical and educational advantages. However, because of the distinctive nature of medical education, students’ inappropriate email etiquette may adversely affect their learning as well as faculty members’ perception of them. Little data on medical students’ competency in professional email writing is available; therefore, this study explored the strengths and weaknesses of medical students’ email etiquette and factors that contribute to professional email writing.MethodsA total of 210 emails from four faculty members at Seoul National University College of Medicine were collected. An evaluation criteria and a scoring rubric were developed based on the various email-writing guidelines. The rubric comprised 10 items, including nine items for evaluation related to the email components and one item for the assessment of global impression of politeness. Three evaluators independently assessed all emails according to the criteria.ResultsStudents were identified as being 61.0 % male and 52.8 % were in the undergraduate-entry program. The sum of each component score was 62.21 out of 100 and the mean value for global impression was 2.6 out of 4. The results demonstrated that students’ email etiquettes remained low-to-mediocre for most criteria, except for readability and honorifics. Three criteria, salutation (r=0.668), closing (r=0.653), and sign-off (r=0.646), showed a strong positive correlation with the global impression of politeness. Whether a student entered a graduate-entry program or an undergraduate-entry program significantly contributed to professional email writing after other variables were controlled.ConclusionsAlthough students in the graduate-entry program demonstrated a relatively superior level of email etiquette, the majority of medical students did not write emails professionally. Educating all medical students in email etiquette may well contribute to the improvement of student–faculty relationships as well as their email writing.

Negative school experiences of Late Millennial Korean medical students: a qualitative study using the critical incident technique

“…Faculty members report feeling perplexed and frustrated when faced with today's students' unexpected behaviors, feelings, and thoughts [2]. The literature describes generational conflicts over attitudes towards lectures, posting content on social network services (SNS), and email communication etiquette [3][4][5].…”

Email Use Reconsidered in Health Professions Education: Viewpoint

“…Email is also incorporated into educational environments to facilitate learning and engagement [ 33 ]. When used as a pedagogical tool, it allows the instructor to facilitate the dissemination of information and to support conversations that would not normally take place during a class session [ 13 ]. Moreover, emails sent by course instructors help to motivate students toward successful learning outcomes [ 34 ].…”

“…The asynchronous feature of email supports the careful construction of questions and responses by allowing each party to consider their message before sending [ 34 ]. Such a delay can benefit shy or reluctant students by (1) removing the competitive nature of classroom discussions, (2) providing time to reflect on the topic, and (3) allowing students to develop a response that demonstrates a higher level of critical and reflective thinking [ 34 ], as well as their communication skills and professionalism [ 13 ].…”

“…The private, corporate, health care, and higher education sectors incorporate email as a foundational mode of modern communication [ 11 , 12 ]. As such, email has become ubiquitous in higher education and has greatly improved the networking and collaborating capabilities of faculty, staff, and students [ 13 , 14 ]. Email is the means of communication preferred by students and faculty owing to its affordability, accessibility, and ability to send accompanying files [ 15 ].…”

Etiquette, competence, and professionalism: the profile of the ‘ideal pediatric anesthesiologist’

“…A correct etiquette opens the social space for future interactions and creates the first impression about a specific person. In a wider sense, etiquette includes also basic rules in everyday life, for instance, email correspondence which should be polite, formal, and also brief and to the point and phone etiquette with taking a call as quickly as possible, identifying yourself with full name and title and showing willingness to listen intently to the other party. Etiquette may also include maintaining poise in difficult situations, e.g., when exposed to disruptive behavior of the other party, it is essential not to react in the same manner .…”