PBL Muse #22: Medical Student Professionalism

Today’s muse asks the question: is there a relationship between medical student professionalism and lapses in professionalism when they become physicians?

Professional behavior is considered essential to the practice of medicine, and is increasingly emphasized in medical school curricula. However, several obstacles limit the effectiveness of professionalism education in medical training. Medical educators struggle to define and measure professionalism, which, in fact, is usually identified in terms of its absence-when unprofessional behavior is observed in trainees. Instruments to assess professionalism reflect this struggle for consistency and credibility. There is also skepticism as to whether professionalism is a learnable skill or an inborn character trait. Student peers and teachers are often reluctant to report negative behaviors, either because they do not directly observe such behaviors, or feel personally uncomfortable with (or fear) the confrontation that arises in making such reports. Finally, faculty typically encounter such behaviors as isolated events, and may be hesitant to generalize about what are seen as solitary behaviors in individual students.

Click here for the abstract of a research study on this topic.

Maynard Luterman