medical residents’ attitude toward professionalism and assessment of their professional behaviors: a cross-sectional survey

Background: professionalism training is a core component of medical education. this study’s aim was to determine medical residents’ attitudes toward professionalism and self-reported professional behaviors. methods: in a cross-sectional survey at qazvin university of medical sciences, 100 medical residents in their first through third years were invited to participate in a survey between april and june of 2015. participants responded to a written questionnaire consisting of 7 demographic and 42 content items in 4 domains. content items were rated on a 5-point likert scale. results with a mean of less than three were considered undesirable. a non-parametric kruskal-wallis test was used to compare distributions in the study groups. all statistical analyses were performed using spss version 22. results: with a response rate of 87%, a mean age of 31.9 (sd: 3.0) was recorded. the mean likert score for the perception of residents on the ethical importance of “colleague report” and “reporting error” was undesirable. the percentage of residents’ self-reported unprofessional behaviors during their training was high. moreover, 71% (95% ci: 61-80) of residents believed that ethics should be formally taught in the medical school curriculum. over 97% (95% ci: 94- 100) believed that learning medical ethics and professionalism requires more than a theoretical course. a longitudinal approach was the most agreed-upon format. conclusion: based on the findings of this research, despite a relatively acceptable rate of professional behaviors, residents perceive a need for a more comprehensive curricular attention to practical ethics and ethically important professional development during residency training.