Developing medical professionalism in future doctors: a systematic review

Abstract

Objectives: There are currently no guidelines on the most effective ways of supporting medical students to develop high standards of medical professionalism. The aim of this review is to summarise the evidence currently available on methods used by medical schools to promote medical professionalism.Methods: We performed a systematic search of electronic databases (Medline, PsychInfo, British Education Index, Educational Resources Information Centre, Sociological Abstracts and Topics in Medical Education) from January 1998 to October 2008. Outcomes studied were methods used to support and promote the development of professionalism in medical students.Results: We identified 134 papers and five main themes for supporting the development of professionalism in medical students: curriculum design, student selection, teaching and learning methods, role modelling and assessment methods. However, the level of empirical evidence supporting each of these methods is limited.Conclusions: Identification of these five areas helps medical schools to focus the emphasis of their approaches to developing professionalism and identifies future research areas. This review offers a preliminary guide to future discovery and progress in the area of medical professionalism.

Physician professional behaviour affects outcomes: A framework for teaching professionalism during anesthesia residency

“…Passi et al identified three characteristics of good role models, i.e., clinical competence, teaching skills, and personal qualities. 30 Almost certainly, trainees recognized as excellent role models those physicians who, in addition to providing good clinical care, took the time to facilitate feedback and made a conscious effort to articulate what they were modelling. This is a demanding expectation, and there are issues with consistently modelling such behaviours.…”

Medical Professionalism: the Effects of Sociodemographic Diversity and Curricular Organization on the Attitudinal Performance of Medical Students

“…When the data were evaluated to better determine the dynamics of this decline, we observed the greatest reduction in the students' performance during the intermediate cycle (i.e., between the 3rd and 4th school years). These data indicate the need to revise the curriculum and extend the teaching of professional attitudes to the clinical phase of the curriculum, as several authors have suggested 8,[10][11][12] .…”

“…Teaching and evaluating students' professional development remains one of the most difficult core content areas in undergraduate medical education. The difficulty of identifying a valid and reliable instrument to measure attitudinal performance is reflected in the large number of measures aimed at assessing constructs related to medical professionalism that have been published to date [12][13][14] .…”

Definition of professionalism by different groups of health care students

“…As professionalism is considered an important part of a health worker's contract with society, every individual has to continue improving by constant personal development training and continuing exposure of themselves to different experiences (Kirk, 2007). There are voices calling that the selection of health workers or health workers to be, has to start even on the admission process to the institutions (Passi et al, 2010;Waheet et al, 2011;Scotish Government, 2012). Professionalism of the individuals who are involved in health care is necessary to be assessed by using a multitude of methods (Salvatori, 1996;Redfern et al, 2002).…”