Professionalism in medical students at a private medical college in Karachi, Pakistan

To determine levels of professionalism in undergraduate medical students at a private medical college and assess how changes emerge during their training. The study was conducted at Aga Khan University, a tertiary care teaching hospital, during November and December 2011. Freshmen, Year 3 and Year 5...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association 2013-07, Vol.63 (7), p.935-939
Main Authors: Sobani, Zain-ul-abedeen, Mohyuddin, Muhammad Masaud, Farooq, Fahd, Qaiser, Kanza Noor, Gani, Faiz, Bham, Nida Shahab, Raheem, Ahmed, Mehraj, Vikram, Saeed, Syed Abdul, Sharif, Hasanat, Sheerani, Mughis, Zuberi, Rukhsana Wamiq, Beg, Mohamamd Asim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College students
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - standards
Educational Status
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Male
Medical colleges
Medical students
Pakistan
Private Sector
Professional workers
Retrospective Studies
Students, Medical - statistics & numerical data
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Universities
Young Adult
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Summary:To determine levels of professionalism in undergraduate medical students at a private medical college and assess how changes emerge during their training. The study was conducted at Aga Khan University, a tertiary care teaching hospital, during November and December 2011. Freshmen, Year 3 and Year 5 students were requested to fill out a questionnaire. It was designed to assess the participants' levels of professionalism and how they perceived the professional environment around them by incorporating previously described scales. The questionnaire was re-validated on a random sample of practising clinicians at the same hospital. SPSS 17 was used for statistical analysis. The study sample comprised 204 participants. The mean score for level of individual professionalism was 7.72+/-3.43. Only 13 (6.4%) students had a score one standard deviation above the faculty mean. About 24 (11.8%) were one standard deviation and 35 (17.2%) were 2 standard deviations below the faculty mean. The remaining 130 (63.7%) were >2 standard deviations below the faculty mean. Considering the level of education, the mean score for level of professionalism was 8.00+/-3.39 for freshmen, 6.85+/-3.41 for year 3 students, and 8.40+/-3.34 for year 5 students. The currently employed teaching practices inculcating the values of professionalism in medical students are serving as a buffer to maintain the pre-training levels of professionalism from declining.
ISSN:0030-9982