Professionalism... it depends where you're standing.

There is a large body of literature relating to professionalism originating from a variety of academic disciplines. This has resulted in multiple definitions being reported, particularly in regards to medical education. This paper aims to give an overview of the different lenses through which professionalism may be viewed and how these might impact upon educational objectives and curricular design for student education.

Professional behaviours demonstrated by undergraduate dental students using an incident reporting system.

Critical incident reporting is widely used across healthcare and other sectors for reporting adverse events or behaviours. More recently it has been used in medical education as a means of assessing student professionalism. The aims of this study were to determine the usage of critical incident forms when reporting behaviours related to professionalism demonstrated by undergraduate dental students, and the types of behaviours exhibited. Three types of form could be awarded for highly professional (green), minor unprofessional (yellow) and serious unprofessional (red) behaviours. All forms completed over a two-year period were analysed recording the year of student, type of card and demographic of the member of staff reporting the incident. All text relating to the nature of the incident was entered into a qualitative data analysis software package and analysed thematically. In total, 583 cards were awarded, 55% green, 34% yellow and 11% red. Seventy-four percent of cards were awarded in a clinical environment, with administrative staff using them the most (29%). The overwhelming professional behaviours demonstrated related to altruism. The most common unprofessional behaviours related to a lack of conscientiousness, although a greater range of common unprofessional behaviours were reported. In conclusion, critical incidents forms were widely used for reporting both professional and unprofessional behaviours particularly in clinical environments by a range of staff. Such forms may be a valuable addition to the professionalism assessment portfolio, capturing behaviours not previously reported using traditional methods.

A comparison of grades awarded by peer assessment, faculty and a digital scanning device in a pre-clinical operative skills course.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the grades awarded by two experienced assessors with peer-assessment marks and measurements from a digital scanning device (Prepassistant; KaVo, Biberach, Germany), for full gold crown preparations completed in a pre-clinical operative skills course on typodont teeth. METHODS: Seventy-eight preparations on typodont teeth were randomised and assessed by all three methods. Agreement was measured using weighted kappa statistics, and mean rank scores given by the Friedman test. RESULTS: The highest agreement was seen between the experienced assessors (0.38), closely followed by peer assessment and experienced assessor agreement (0.36, 0.29). Despite this, the results indicate poor levels of agreement. No agreement was seen between any of the assessment methods when compared to the digital scanning device. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study could be related to the difficulty of calculating a single grade from the output of the device, in addition to the inability of the machine to assess all the factors necessary for an acceptable preparation. From this study, it can be concluded that this device is not suitable for calculating grades when used in isolation. Further research could explore the role of the Prepassistant in providing student feedback, its potential to enhance the learning experience and the subsequent effect on performance.

Peer-group assessment of pre-clinical operative skills in restorative dentistry and comparison with experienced assessors.

OBJECTIVE: In order to assess the feasibility of moving away from a tutor-assessed summative assessment to a peer-group marked assessment with more formative value, a study was undertaken to investigate if any differences existed between marks given by a peer group acting as examiner when compared with experienced assessors. The null hypothesis was that no differences in grades would exist between the examiners. METHODS: A total of 130 ivorine teeth set in dentoform models (mounted in phantom heads) were prepared by undergraduate preclinical students. The prepared teeth were randomly allocated for assessment to one of six student groups who met and graded each tooth preparation. Notes on common errors were supplied together with a list of multiple exemplar grades (of the full range of grades) and associated comments, together with a list of grade descriptors (for the five-point scale A-E) and a sectioned silicone index. The same preparations were independently assessed by two experienced restorative academic examiners using the same guidance. RESULTS: The mean rank scores given by a Friedman test did not show any statistically significant difference (P = 0.531). Kappa scores for inter-examiner agreement varied from 0.318 to 0.530. CONCLUSIONS: The data from the present study do not show any significant differences in grades awarded by experienced examiners to those awarded by a peer group. Peer-group assessment may be useful to encourage a greater understanding of concepts and principles underlying the development of operative skills.