Shaping medical professionalism in pre-clinical medical students: students' perspective.

Objectives: Medical professionalism is an essential aspect of medical education and clinical practice globally. It symbolizes the nature, responsibilities and distinctiveness of medical students and physicians. The significance of medical professionalism has been highlighted as it involves an ongoing conversation. This study aimed to determine the medical students' perspectives towards the teaching medical Professionalism course in medical schools. Method: For this study a cross-sectional based well-structured English language questionnaire survey was administered. The questionnaire was distributed among 238 second year male and female medical students. 136 (57.14%) participants were male and 102 (42.85%) were female medical students. The questionnaire comprised of 14 items, students' feedback was recorded on teaching medical Professionalism and assessment system. Results: Out of 238 students: 55.5% of the students' responses were positive about their pre-knowledge regarding the medical professionalism course. 14.7% medical students agreed and 16% disagreed for keeping professionalism course in medical schools. However, 69.3% students' responses remained neutral. As far as the lectures were concerned in order to perceive the professionalism course 47.1% of the total students "agreed" and 18.9 % of students "disagreed". Regarding the participants' perceptions on assessment system, 71% students reported that the professionalism course should not be evaluated by MCQs. The majority of males (72.8%) and females (68.6%) were not in favor of course evaluation being based on the MCQs. Conclusion: Majority of the medical students showed positive pre knowledge about medical professionalism course. Medical students were less likely interested to keep the medical professionalism course in medical schools. However, they were highly satisfied with the instructors for properly utilizing the technology during the study sessions. Medical professionalism course needs time and further improvements in making the students understand about the objectives and significance of the medical professionalism course in academic and clinical practice.