title: The Perceptions of Professionalism by 1(st) and 5(th) Grade Medical Students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Professionalism is essential for the development of mature physicians but not much education is devoted to that theme.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to determine the views of undergraduate medical students on medical professionalism.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a qualitative study, based on focus groups of the first and fifth-year undergraduate medical students. Transcripts of the focus groups were independently evaluated by two researches. Segments of transcripts, identified as important, were marked as verbatims. A grounded theory method with open coding was applied. A list of codes was developed and reviewed by both researchers until the consensus was reached. Then, the codes were reviewed and put into the categories and dimensions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students recognized 10 main medical professionalism dimensions (empathy, respect, responsibility, autonomy, trust, communication, difference between professional and private life, team work, partnership) and two dimensions associated with it (physician's characteristics, external factors). Slight change of the attitudes towards a more self-centred future physicians' figure was observed in the fifth-year medical students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The students have an appropriate picture of the physicians' figure even at the beginning of their medical studies but still needs an education in professionalism. It seems that the fifth-year students perceive physicians as more self-centred when compared to their first-year colleagues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Taborska 8, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia ; Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Poljanskinasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Zalika
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Klemenc-Ketis
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Taborska 8, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vrecko
keywords: medical ethics; medical students; qualitative study