Professionalism has become one of the core competencies in medical education which will shape physicians’s behavior in the future to provide high-quality and patient-centered care services. Objectives: To assess the perceptions and attitudes of medical students regarding professionalism in health care. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out with 717 second-year and fifth-year medical students of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University. Results: Students’ perception on professionalism was not high, at 3.85 out of 5 points. In which, “respect” was the domain having highest score and “communication skills” was the lowest recognition domain (4.15 and 3.54 out of 5, respectively). Preclinical students had higher perception than students having clinical experiences in all aspects of professionalism (p<0.05). Conclusion: Priority should be given to train professionalism and communication skills through the early clinical exposure program and hidden curriculum across all years of medical education program. Furthermore, the core aspects of professionalism are needed to be consistently identified and evaluated in the training program among medical universities in Vietnam

Background: Assessing students’ learning readiness has become more important to establish on-target learning and teaching environments, particularly since blended learning and online learning are widely implemented in medical education. This study aims (1) to examine the reliability and validity of Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS) and (2) to identify the levels of online learning readiness for blended learning methods using virtual reality and its associations. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 102 fifthyear medical students was conducted. The data were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was utilized to investigate the relationships among dimensions of OLRS. Results: The VN-version of the OLRS scale consists of 16 items in four dimensions, namely Self-directed learning - SDL, Motivation for learning - MFL, Computer & Internet self-efficacy - CIS, Online communication self-efficacy - OCS. Confirmatory factor analysis indicates the model fit of the OLRS scale in a blended learning course context. The composite reliability and construct validity of the scale was found to be within the acceptable range. Students showed high readiness for blended learning course, of which SDL was the dimension having the highest score of readiness, followed by MFL and CIS dimensions. There were positive correlations across all dimensions of OLRS (p<0.001). Statistically significant associations were found between gender, health professional orientation, computer self-efficacy and their experience of medical education environment and dimensions of OLRS. Conclusion: The results indicate that the OLRS is a reliable and valid measurement tool in the assessment of online learning readiness levels of blended learning course using virtual reality. It is recommended to develop a reliable scale to assess the perceptions and readiness of instructors undertaking the move to blended teaching. Key words: confirmatory factor analysis, blended learning, Online Learning Readiness Scale, virtual reality, medical education