Letters
Ethics
Volume 200 - Issue 1

“They liked it if you said you cried”: how medical students perceive the teaching of professionalism

Author:  Paul M McGurgan

Med J Aust 2014; 200 (1): 20-22. || doi: 10.5694/mja13.11249
Published online: 20 January 2014
To the Editor: Personal and professional development (PPD) as part of the medical school curriculum has been the subject of recent interest and debate in the MJA.1,2 The authors highlighted the disjunction between what is intended to be taught, what is learned and what is valued by students, with one of the conclusions being the importance of gaining student feedback on PPD. To promote medical student ...
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To the Editor: Personal and professional development (PPD) as part of the medical school curriculum has been the subject of recent interest and debate in the MJA.1,2 The authors highlighted the disjunction between what is intended to be taught, what is learned and what is valued by students, with one of the conclusions being the importance of gaining student feedback on PPD.

To promote medical student engagement with PPD at the University of Western Australia, final-year students were sent an online survey to evaluate the current PPD curriculum and enable students to anonymously provide input into the PPD curriculum for the new Doctor of Medicine (MD) course.

A Likert scale was used to rate students’ comments on the current PPD curriculum. A positive rating was defined as a response of either “moderate”, “very” or “extremely” beneficial to personal or professional development. Open-ended questions were used to elicit feedback on how respondents thought the PPD curriculum could be improved.

Forty-three students completed the survey (response rate, 24%). In descending order, the students rated the most beneficial components of the PPD curriculum to be the dedicated PPD lectures and seminars (80%–87% positive response), the clinical mentor program overall (80%), meeting with clinical mentors (69%), the online teaching resources (69%), and the reflective essays (50%).

The informal or hidden curriculum aspects of PPD during the course were highly regarded. The informal feedback on the PPD issues that students had encountered during clinical rotations was rated positively by 90% of students. Feedback was received from doctors they had worked with (90%), unit coordinators (85%) or fellow students (78%).

When asked about the methods used to assess PPD knowledge and professional behaviour, students preferred assessment based on a mentor program led by a qualified doctor (90%), participation in end-of-rotation small-group discussions on professional or ethical issues arising during the rotation (78%), attendance at PPD lectures and seminars (73%), and reflective essays (66%).

There were 17 responses with comments from students on how PPD in the curriculum could be improved. The most common theme for improvement was to embed PPD as a facilitated small-group discussion of the professional and ethical issues students had encountered or experienced during clinical rotations.

In summary, students provide useful feedback on PPD. They value mentoring and reflective learning based around the ethical and professional issues that occur during their rotations. Student engagement with PPD can help to ensure that teaching professionalism walks the walk rather than just talks the talk.2

Author

  • Paul M McGurgan1
  • 1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA.

Correspondence: paul.mcgurgan@uwa.edu.au

Competing interests

I coordinate the PPD program which the medical students surveyed evaluated.

References

View this article on Wiley Online Library

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