title: Impact of a Didactic Lecture on Professionalism in Increasing Knowledge Amongst Faculty and Residents in an Academic Department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ACGME require compliance with six core competencies - professionalism is one of them. Non-professional behavior is the most common reason for disciplinary action against physicians by the Medical Boards. Professionalism should be taught and measured at an early stage of the physician's career.
  
  
  METHODS
  IRB approval was obtained to carry out this study. The subjects were faculty and residents of the anesthesia department. The pretest was administered and followed by a lecture and discussion on professionalism by Anesthesia faculty. This was followed by the posttest. The test consisted of 22 questions related to professionalism.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighteen subjects completed the pretest while 14 completed the posttest. Age range was 39.72 +/- 10.58. The pretest scores were 59.6+/- 12.5, while the posttest scores were 57.8 +/- 12.8. Correct answers for each question ranged from 5.6 to 100% for the pretest and 0 to 100% for the post test. Correct answers for each subject ranged from 31.8 to 77.3% for both pre and post tests. No statistically significant difference was found in scores between the pre-test and post-test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on these initial findings, teaching professionalism is extremely difficult and feed back from the participants using tools like a pretest and post-test may help identify if knowledge transfer has actually occurred. Teaching and assessment of professionalism should take into consideration the students pre-existing knowledge-base, cultural background and environment.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Peregrina L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Arciaga
authors.affiliation: CA3 Resident, Department of Anesthesiology, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Adejare
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Windokun
authors.affiliation: Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jahr
authors.affiliation: Professor of Anesthesiology, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University; Vice Chair for Education, Anesthesiology Institute, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tetzlaff
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA; Deceased.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Steen
keywords: core competencies; cultural diversity; faculty and residents; multiple choice questions; professionalism teaching and assessment; validity and reliability