The resident view of professionalism behavior frequency in outstanding and "not outstanding" faculty.
BACKGROUND
Professionalism assessment has become necessary for all postgraduate training programs because it is now required for accreditation. To validate the novel items we generated to assess professionalism, we tested whether residents' ratings of faculty they judged as outstanding in professionalism would be distinguishable from those they judged as not outstanding.


METHODS
Educators from core clinical disciplines generated 20 items assessing professionalism behaviors on a 7-point frequency scale anchored by "always" and "never." Thirty-five surgical and pediatric residents completed the form twice, anonymously rating 1 faculty member they judged as outstanding and another they judged as not outstanding.


RESULTS
The residents produced 69 faculty ratings with means that differed significantly on all items between the outstanding and not-outstanding faculty. The form was highly unidimensional, with the primary factor's eigenvalue being 11.5 and Cronbach's alpha being 0.97. Groups differed most on items, ie, "listens well," "inspires trust," "answers questions directly," and "demonstrates respect for all."


CONCLUSIONS
The behaviors that best distinguished clinical faculty judged by residents as outstanding professionals were listening, trustworthiness, answering directly, and respect.
Ephgrave
Kimberly
K
Department of Surgery, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Dr, Iowa City, IA 52242-1009, USA. kimberly-ephgrave@uiowa.edu
Stansfield
R Brent
RB
Woodhead
Jerold
J
Sharp
W John
WJ
George
Thomas
T
Lawrence
John
J
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards*; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education; D012655:Self-Evaluation Programs