Assessment of Medical Professionalism among Students and Faculty Members of Shalamar Medical and Dental College, Lahore.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Medical professionalism is an essential part of training and professional development of medical students. Unprofessional behavior in medical school may lead to professional misconduct in the future careers. The Learner's Attitude of Medical Professionalism Scale (LAMPS) is a self-assessment questionnaire. It has been used in this study to assess and compare self-reported attitudes about different domains of medical professionalism among First and Final Year students and Faculty of Shalamar Medical and Dental College (SMDC). LAMPS has been used to identify the gaps in the attitudes of medical students and professionals, which can be addressed through a training program of professionalism. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted in SMDC from June to Dec 2018. First Year and Final Year Students and Faculty were recruited by non-probability convenience sampling. The sample size was calculated by the Cochran's Formula, keeping the level of significance at 5% and margin of error at 3%. The reliability of LAMPS using Cronbach's alpha is 0.7. It has been validated by 32 experts followed by pilot testing. The domains of professionalism were scored according to Likert Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS 24. T-test was used for comparison of the means. RESULTS: There were a total of 204 study participants; 88 students from First Year, 78 from Final Year and 38 Faculty Members. Honor/Integrity was the most valued trait and Excellence/Autonomy was the lowest scored domain of medical professionalism. There was a significant difference among attitudes of the First and Final Year students in the domains of Excellence/Autonomy and Altruism. Excellence/Autonomy and Honor/Integrity showed a significant difference between the Final Year students and Faculty. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students and faculty have significantly different views of certain attributes of professionalism. Honor/Integrity was the most valued trait and Excellence/Autonomy was the lowest valued trait of medical professionalism.