Attitudes toward professionalism in medical students and its associations with personal characteristics and values: a national multicentre study from Slovenia raising the question of the need to rethink professionalism

Abstract

Background: Professionalism is becoming one of the main competencies that all medical students should develop during their education. The attitudes of medical students to professionalism in the study process can change, depending on the curriculum and methods of teaching. Factors associated with attitudes to professionalism can be divided into the characteristics of the physician and the context, eg, education about professionalism and the health system; however other student characteristics are also important. This study focused on the factors associated with attitudes toward professionalism and took into account student demographic characteristics, personality and their personal values.

Methods: A convenience sampling method was employed in the academic year 2015–2016 in the fourth and final year medical students at the two Medical Faculties in Slovenia. The instrument consisted of questionnaires examining the Big Five personality traits questionairre (BFQ), the scale of personal values and demographic and family background data. The outcome measure was the validated professionalism attitude scale (PAS).

Results: A total of 323 students participated, of which 101 (31.3%) were men and 222 (68.7%) were women. The samples of the two faculties did not differ in any demographic characteristics and were analyzed together. Of the personal values, partner/love, profession/work and sport activity were significantly associated with the total score of the PAS (β=0.22, p=0.033; β=0.24, p=0.003; β=0.17, p=0.040, respectively). After the adjustments for the BFQ dimensions, only profession/work kept significance (β=0.19, p=0.016). Women scored significantly higher on attitudes toward professionalism (total PAS score: M_w=93.4±5.1, M_m=89.1±9.8, p=0.001), and this significance remained in multivariate modeling (β=−0.20, p=0.001). Of the hereditary traits, only acceptability was associated with attitudes toward professionalism (β=0.25, p<0.001).

Conclusions: It seems that personal characteristics and values are important in students` concept of their future professional behavior. Further research will show whether these patterns are prerequisites for enrollment in the study process.

Keywords:

• medical students
• personal values
• attitudes
• professionalism
• personal traits

Abbreviation list

BFQ, Big Five personality traits questionnaire; SPV, scale of personal values; PAS, professionalism attitude scale.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the students who took part in the study. Special thanks to Mr. Alojz Tapajner for his efforts with data and Ms. Justi Carey for her language corrections.

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency, research core funding research in the field of public health No. P3-0339.

Disclosure

Prof. Dr. Polona Selic report grants from Slovenian Research Agency, during the conduct of the study. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.