An Intervention to Remediate Unprofessional Behaviours of Pre-Clinical Medical Students

Abstract

Remediating the unprofessional behaviours of medical students is essential because the unprofessional behaviours of medical practitioners could be traced back to their previous behaviours in medical schools. This study evaluated a programme that used reflection in remediating students with unprofessional behaviours. Personal and professional development (PPD) assignments have a “hidden curriculum” on professional behaviours expected of medical students. Seven students who repeatedly failed to complete the PPD assignments were required to attend a remediation programme. The remediation programme aims to help students reflect on their behaviours. They compared professional behaviours between medical practitioners and students and discussed unprofessional behaviours using actual cases. Thematic analysis was performed on the reflective essays of the students, collected at the beginning and the end of the remediation programme. At the beginning of the programme, students expressed anger because they felt that the PPD assignments were minor tasks. At the end of the programme, students expressed their regretful feelings; they recognised lessons learnt and developed corrective measures. A follow-up reported that the faculty no longer deemed the students unsatisfactory in their professional behaviours one year later. Reflection is recognised as useful in healthcare education, but there is a lack of published evidence to answer whether reflection can be learned. In this study, the students learnt to reflect on their previous professional behaviours, and they developed corrective measures to avoid the recurrence of these previous behaviours. The findings may imply that reflection could be taught and learned to cultivate professional behaviours among medical students.