Cognitive status of professionalism among medical students: a case study of two universities in China / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the cognitive status of professionalism among medical college students and ways to cultivate physician professionalism.Methods:According to the literature and interview, we made the questionnaire on the cognition of physician professionalism among medical students. A total of 512 valid questionnaires (including e-questionnaires) were collected from medical students of Shantou University Medical College and Qingdao University Medical College of Shandong Province from May to September, 2017. SPSS 20.0 software was used to perform the normality and single-sample t-test on physician professionalism, professional cognition, professional emotion and professional willingness. Quantitative data was analyzed by cross-table chi-square test and mean-standard deviation. Results:The professional cognition scored lowest (3.62±0.50) in the three dimensions, the professional willingness scored the highest (4.35±0.58), and the professional emotional scored in the middle (4.05±0.48). There was significant difference in physician professionalism among medical students with different family background ( P<0.05), but no statistical difference in gender and school system. Conclusion:The results demonstrate a low-to-medium level of physician professionalism in medical students. We suggest to cultivate and promote physician professionalism from the aspects of emphasis on objectivity, and cultivation of humanism and service consciousness.