Abstract
Background: Medical professionalism, defined as commitment to the primacy of patient welfare, is the basis for doctor–patient–society relationships, but previous research with medical students has shown that professionalism and social commitment to medicine may be waning. To determine if this trend also appears in recently qualified practicing doctors, we surveyed 90 newly graduated doctors currently working as medical residents in two university hospitals in Murcia, Spain. A previously validated questionnaire that studies the perception of six categories (responsibility, altruism, service, excellence, honesty and integrity, and respect) defining medical professionalism was used. Results: A good perception of professionalism was found among medical residents, with more than 70% positive responses in all these six categories. There is an increasing trend in the number of negative responses as the residency goes on. Altruism was the category with the greatest percentage of negative answers (22.3%) and Respect was the category with the lowest percentage (12.9%). Conclusions: The results show a good professionalism perception in medical residents, but also a slight decline in positive answers that began during medical school. A significant trend was found when including both students and residents. Although there were some differences between students and residents, these were not statistically significant. Educational interventions are needed both at the level of medical school and postgraduate medical residency.
Highlights
The interest in medical professionalism, defined as a set of values, behaviors and relationships that underpin the trust that the public places in the doctors, has been growing in recent years, due to many reports [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] alerting about the lack of social commitment in a profession, medicine, that it is much more than a mere occupation
The rapid advancement of medical knowledge has had a great impact in medicine, and it has been suggested that the increase in professional expertise has been associated with a decrease in professionalism along with social commitment [1,2]
It consists of 6 blocks, each of which presents 6 attitudes that represent an element of medical professionalism defined by the American Board of Internal Medicine, namely: responsibility, altruism, service, excellence, honesty and integrity, and respect [13]
Summary
The interest in medical professionalism, defined as a set of values, behaviors and relationships that underpin the trust that the public places in the doctors, has been growing in recent years, due to many reports [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] alerting about the lack of social commitment in a profession, medicine, that it is much more than a mere occupation. The perception of professionalism was acceptable, a trend towards a slow decline during the medical school period was observed [9] Having seen this issue in a medical student cohort, this paper seeks to examine whether or not these trends persist in the same cohort once they become practicing residents or if these trends found among students are found amongst residents. Medical training in Spain follows the so-called Bologna Scheme, in which students undertake six years of theoretical and practical training in a medical school They enter medical specialization in hospitals and primary care centers, through a residency program (mainly of a public nature), where young doctors enter after they pass a national exam that allows them to select a desired specialty according to their position in the exam [11]. This training system supports the argument to consider both medical students and residents as the same cohort
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