Preliminary benchmarking of appropriate sanctions for lapses in undergraduate professionalism in the health professions

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the extent of consensus between faculty and students in order to benchmark appropriate sanctions for first-time offences with no mitigating factors in the area of Academic Probity by quota sampling in one cohort of medical, nursing and dental students in a Scottish university.

Methods: This study reports administration of a web-based preliminary inventory derived from the international research literature to a target population of health professions staff and students. This study was conducted at Scottish University College of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Midwifery.

Subjects: 57 faculty and 689 students in the College in first quarter of 2009 participated in this study.

Results: 50% of medical students, 26% of dental students, 22% of nursing students and 27% of midwifery students responded; 22% of faculty responded. Administration of a preliminary 41-item inventory to 57 faculty and 689 students from a Scottish College of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Midwifery has allowed us to preliminarily rank the sanctions that are broadly agreed between the two cohorts as well as to identify a small cluster of behaviours which are viewed less severely by students than by faculty.

Conclusions: These data will give guidance to undergraduate Fitness to Practice committees but also guidance to curriculum planners about the areas in which students may need more teaching. The results informed the reduction of the inventory and its refinement in to a 30-item e-learning tool that is being field tested for generalisability within and beyond the UK. The researchers have also been invited to adapt the proposed teaching and learning tools beyond the health professions.

Notes

1. ‘Professionalism is thus a state reached only after a prolonged period of learning, instruction and reflective experience. We propose the period leading up to this as one of proto-professionalism. This should not imply that proto-professionals are unprofessional, rather that they have yet to acquire full professional maturity. Good professional behaviours from proto-professionals may be sought and identified in context … .’ (Hilton & Slotnick 2005, p. 61). ‘Students do not show attributes of mature professionalism. Rather, the first days of medical school begin the part of the physicians’ careers we call “proto-professional” – a period extending into independent practice.’ (Slotnick & Hilton 2006, p. 430).