title: Professionalism in clerkships: an analysis of MSPE commentary.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Professionalism in medical school predicts future behaviors. The authors assessed prevalence of references to professionalism behaviors in the clerkship commentary portion of Medical School Performance Evaluations (MSPEs).
  
  
  METHODS
  Content analyses of 293 MSPEs submitted for 2005 graduates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 70% of MSPEs specifically mentioned professionalism; 96% included information about at least 1 of 16 professional behaviors. Internal Medicine referenced significantly more behaviors than other clerkships. Commentary about behaviors such as interactions (94%) and motivation (91%) was common; behaviors such as truthfulness (8%) and confidentiality (6%) were rarely mentioned. Fewer than 1% of comments could be considered negative.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most professionalism comments in MSPEs are generic and somewhat bland, tending to be about students' collegial interactions and hard work. More detail and breadth may be facilitated by wider use of behavior-centered evaluation in clerkships.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, 1223 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021, USA. sheaja@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Judy A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Shea
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: O'Grady
authors.forename: Barbara R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Jon B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morrison
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D003099:College Admission Test; D015709:Correspondence as Topic; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D011361:Professional Competence; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior; D014481:United States