title: [Professionalism of physicians from the point of view of physicians and students].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Professionalism should be included as a fundamental component in the curriculum of undergraduate as well as graduate students of Medicine. Future physicians should be aware of the attributes that a professional should possess.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the ideal medical doctor attributes from the point of view of physicians and students of Medicine.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred four physicians (MD) and 47 students answered a free association test on the attributes they would assign to a good physician. The test was applied via Internet to professionals, and students were tested in group dynamics at the beginning of the class on Bioethics and Professionalism. Data were processed according to the Lexical Availability Model (LAM) which provides quantitative as well as qualitative evaluations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The attributes with higher scores among MD's were honesty (0.379), regular academic updating (0.373), ability (0.325) and empathy (0.241). Among students, the selected attributes were excellence (0.625), empathy (0.511), responsibility (0.280) and ability (0.209). A general agreement was found among physicians and students, excepts by the fact that MD's consider continuing academic updating as the most important attribute.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The attributes that physicians and medical students evaluate as essential in professionalism were identified using the LAM approach. At the beginning of the career, students have a definite humanistic approach to their future profession.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Educación Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Concepción, Chile. efasce@udec.cl
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fasce
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Echeverría
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Matus
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Palacios
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soto
mesh_terms: D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards*; D012660:Semantics; D013337:Students, Medical