[Professionalism of physicians from the point of view of physicians and students].
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.
Fasce
Eduardo
E
Departamento de Educación Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Concepción, Chile. efasce@udec.cl
Echeverría
Max
M
Matus
Olga
O
Ortiz
Liliana
L
Palacios
Sylvia
S
Soto
Alejandro
A
D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards*; D012660:Semantics; D013337:Students, Medical