Learning Professionalism in Medical College: Perspectives of Medical Students

Abstract

Objective: To assess the perception of medical students about teaching professionalism in medical colleges. Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Railway General Hospital, Rawalpindi, from 10 June, 2016 to 10 December, 2016. Materials and Methods: A semi structured, amended and validated questionnaire was used to collect the data.The questionnaire was distributed among 55 final year male and female medical students. 27 (49.1%) participants were male and 28 (50.9%) were female students. The questionnaire comprised of 9 items to determine various aspects of students' perception about teaching medical professionalism in medical school. Results: Fifty five students participated. Only 20% of the students' responses were positive about their preknowledge regarding the medical professionalism course. 30.9% students agreed for keeping professionalism course in medical schools. However, half of students' responses remained neutral. Majority of students (49.1%) disagreed with the effectiveness of lecturing to teach the professionalism. Majority of students (58.2%) approved the use of MCQs for the evaluation of professionalism course. The majority of males (82.1%) and females (70.2%) agreed with the effectiveness of course evaluation by MCQs. Conclusion: A large majority of students were clear about the objectives of medical professionalism course and had opinion that the medical professionalism course should be taught with the use of technology rather than in the form of lectures and this course should be evaluated in the form of MCQs.

Keywords

• medical professionalism, questionnaire, student feedback.