title: Comparison of recommended sanctions for lapses in professionalism of undergraduate medical students in a Saudi Arabian and a Scottish medical school.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical Professionalism is recognized as a cultural construct. We explore perceptions of the severity of lapses in professionalism of undergraduate medical students at two medical schools with different cultural contexts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Respondents from two medical schools (Saudi Arabia & UK) recommended sanctions for the first time, unmitigated lapses in academic professionalism, using the Dundee Polyprofessionalism Inventory 1: Academic Integrity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While more than two-thirds of the recommended sanctions for the 30 items of poor professionalism were fully or nearly congruent among the 1125 respondents, there were substantial differences in recommended response for one-third of the items, with a strong tendency for the Saudi students to recommend more lenient sanctions than the Scottish students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strategy of using recommended sanctions as a proxy for the perception of the severity of different lapses in professionalism may be a useful tool in learning and teaching academic professionalism among medical students in different cultural contexts.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine , King Saud University , Riyadh , Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Kamran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sattar
authors.affiliation: b Center for Medical Education, University of Dundee , Dundee , UK.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000068616:Professionalism / Q000592:standards*; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D012606:Scotland; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult