Causes and characteristics of medical student referrals to a professional behaviour board

Abstract

ObjectivesTo describe the nature of unprofessional behaviour displayed by medical students, as well as the characteristics of students referred to the professional behaviour board. MethodsA descriptive mixed methods approach was taken, in which qualitative data on unprofessional behaviour, as well as quantitative data on the demographics of referred students were collected during the study period between June 1, 2009 and January 1, 2014. In order to compare the referred students with the total student population, data on gender, nationality and phase in the curriculum of the total student population, collected from the student administration desk, were also used. ResultsIn the study period, a total of 107 referrals were reported, concerning 93 different students (3% of the total student population). Sixty-five of the 107 referrals (61%) concerned male students. Thirty referrals (28%) concerned non-Dutch students. Most referrals (71%) occurred during clinical rotations. The referrals were equally distributed over three professional behaviour domains: dealing with oneself, dealing with others, and dealing with tasks/work. ‘Withdrawn behaviour’ was reported 17 times, ‘insufficient Dutch language proficiency’ 14 times, ‘impertinent emails’ 9 times and ‘placing privacy-sensitive photos on the internet’ 3 times. ConclusionsAlthough only a minority of students are referred to a professional behaviour board, this study shows that student characteristics such as gender and nationality may correlate to a higher incidence of unprofessional behaviour. Further explanatory and exploratory research is needed to unravel this relationship, and to study the influence of curriculum reforms on these relationships, respectively.

Investigating US medical students' motivation to respond to lapses in professionalism

“…Approximately 60% of medical students observe lapses in professionalism by faculty staff and peers in medical school . Each year up to 19% of medical students fail a professional behaviour assessment . Although all physicians should be willing and able to respond to professionalism lapses in colleagues, it is not always easy to do so.…”

A practical framework for remediating unprofessional behavior and for developing professionalism competencies and a professional identity

“…Behavior is seen as measurable, and if behavior of a medical student is judged as unprofessional, remediation is applied. This often involves identifying behavior, discussing behavior, developing a remediation plan, monitoring compliance to the remediation plan and sometimes includes probation, or the dismissal of the student (Domen 2014;Irby and Hamstra 2016;Barnhoorn et al 2017). From the attitude-based perspective, the goal of medical education is fostering the virtues and values needed for good medical practice.…”

“…This association underscores the importance of addressing unprofessional behavior as early as possible. Although only a small number of students display unprofessional behavior (Mak-van der Vossen et al 2016; Barnhoorn et al 2017), unprofessional behavior can harm patients and their trust in the medical profession (Hickson et al 2002;Rosenstein 2011Rosenstein , 2015Ellaway et al 2017). However, assessment and remediation of unprofessional behavior remain difficult tasks (Korszun et al 2005;Papadakis et al 2012;Zbieranowski et al 2013;Bebeau and Faber-Langendoen 2014;Domen 2014;Warren et al 2014; Barnhoorn and Domen 2015;Ziring et al 2015;Arnold et al 2016) (Box 1).…”

Student response to reports of unprofessional behavior: assessing risk of subsequent professional problems in medical school

“…A variety of processes are used throughout North American medical schools to identify or track professionalism issues, including incident-based reports, courses on professionalism, and peer assessment [9]. Interpreting the growing literature on professionalism is complicated by various classification systems used to group types of behaviors deemed as unprofessional [10,11]. …”