Perceptions of professionalism in medicine: a qualitative study

PURPOSE Current guidelines for medical undergraduate education require students to develop appropriate attitudes towards professionalism. As much of the literature defines professionalism in vague terms - altruism, humanism, excellence - few studies have operationalised medical professionalism. This study aims to describe the views and experiences individuals have about medical professionalism to provide a more comprehensive understanding of medical professionalism. METHODS An interview study of medical educators, medical students, doctors, allied health professionals and lay professionals was employed to assess views and experiences of professionalism in medicine. Thematic content analysis was applied to the resulting transcripts; the data were managed by NUD*IST software. RESULTS Twenty-three people participated. Two types of examples about professionalism were provided: conceptual (honest, trustworthy, competent); behavioural (communicating effectively, treating patients equally, working in teams). Seven themes were elicited from the data: compliance to values, patient access, doctor-patient relationship, demeanour, professional management, personal awareness and motivation. CONCLUSION The study provided a description of views about medical professionalism. These data allowed for a more thorough conceptualisation which should be used to inform measures of medical professionalism in order to improve the validity of assessments of medical students' attitudes.