Dataset Information

Preliminary study of the relationship between career choice motivation and understanding of professionalism in newly enrolled medical students in China: a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Early professionalism education for first-year students is important for generating sound knowledge and attitudes towards medical professionalism. Of the many factors affecting professionalism and professional identity formation in medical students, career choice motivation is an understudied one. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the career choice motivations of first-year medical students and their understanding of professionalism.

Settings and participants

A cross-sectional survey of 940 first-year clinical medicine students was conducted at China Medical University in September 2017 to explore students' motivation to study medicine and its relationship with students' understanding of professionalism. Demographics, career choice motivation and professionalism were obtained through paper questionnaires. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the association between career choice motivation and understanding of professionalism while controlling for potential demographic confounders.

Results

The most common career choice motivations for first-year medical students (N=843) were interested in the health sciences, income and social status and advocating altruism. The most mentioned subdimensions of professionalism were accountability, pursuit of excellence and compassion. There were significant differences in the understanding of professionalism among students with different career choice motivations.

Conclusion

First-year medical students with different motivations to study medicine also have different understandings of professionalism. Medical educators can explore motivations to learning medicine as a new entry point to providing professionalism education for newly enrolled medical students.

SUBMITTER: Cui X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7903090 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Preliminary study of the relationship between career choice motivation and understanding of professionalism in newly enrolled medical students in China: a cross-sectional study.

Cui Xuemei X Ding Ning N Jiang Nan N Li Honghe H Wen Deliang D

BMJ open 20210222 2

<h4>Objectives</h4>Early professionalism education for first-year students is important for generating sound knowledge and attitudes towards medical professionalism. Of the many factors affecting professionalism and professional identity formation in medical students, career choice motivation is an understudied one. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the career choice motivations of first-year medical students and their understanding of professionalism.<h4>Settings and particip ...[more]

PMID: 33619186

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Project description:CONTEXT:As unprofessional behaviour in physicians can compromise patient safety, all physicians should be willing and able to respond to lapses in professionalism. Although students endorse an obligation to respond to lapses, they experience difficulties in doing so. If medical educators knew how students respond and why they choose certain responses, they could support students in responding appropriately. OBJECTIVES:The aim of this study was to describe medical students' responses to professionalism lapses in peers and faculty staff, and to understand students' motivation for responding or not responding. METHODS:We conducted an explorative, qualitative study using template analysis, in which three researchers independently coded transcripts of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. We purposefully sampled 18 student representatives convening at a medical education conference. Preliminary open coding of a data subset yielded an initial template, which was applied to further data and modified as necessary. All transcripts were coded using the final template. Finally, three sensitising concepts from the Expectancy-Value-Cost model were used to map participants' responses. RESULTS:Students mentioned having observed lapses in professionalism in both faculty staff and peers. Students' responses to these lapses were avoiding, addressing, reporting or initiating policy change. Generally, students were not motivated to respond if they did not know how to respond, if they believed responding was futile and if they feared retaliation. Students were motivated to respond if they were personally affected, if they perceived the individual as approachable and if they thought that the whole group of students could benefit from their actions. Expectancy of success, value and costs each appeared to be influenced by (inter)personal and system factors. CONCLUSIONS:The Expectancy-Value-Cost model effectively explains students' motivation for responding to lapses. The (inter)personal and system factors influencing students' motivation to respond are modifiable and can be used by medical educators to enhance students' motivation to respond to lapses in professionalism observed in medical school.

Project description:BackgroundOn March 11th, 2020, the WHO made the assessment that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be characterized as a pandemic. Medical students experienced a greater degree of anxiety and psychological stress than during previous pandemics. Negative emotions were related to decreased medical career interest, increased career choice regret and dropout rates in medical students, which affected academic and professional development. The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of the current COVID-19 outbreak on the career preferences of pediatric medical students and to explore the underlying factors contributing to it.MethodsA prospective, longitudinal study was conducted among all 120 pediatric medical students from Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University on November 23rd, 2019, and February 21st, 2020 using a 7-item online questionnaire about career choice.ResultsA total of 106 (41 male and 65 female) students with a mean age of 21 years consented to participate in this study. The response rate was 100% in November 2019 and 98.1% in February 2020. Since the outbreak, career choices to practice medicine or pediatrics did not drop significantly, decreasing by only 4.3% and 2.2%, respectively. There was a positive impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on strengthening 66.7% of students' beliefs and choices to become good pediatricians (P<0.001). Only 14 students (13.5%) thought that COVID-19 had a negative impact on their career choices, but the majority of them were in the 3rd (28.6%) and 4th (64.3%) years of medical education and had insufficient knowledge about the hospital environment and clinics.ConclusionsThe outbreak of COVID-19 might have an overall positive impact on career choice by strengthening students' belief and choice to become good doctors and may decrease the choice regret and drop rates of the next generation of doctors. Special attention should be paid to students with insufficient clinical experience. Good protection for students, sharing outstanding stories regarding fighting the pandemic, and innovations of needs-based curriculum could be helpful during this pandemic. Future studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

Dataset Information

Preliminary study of the relationship between career choice motivation and understanding of professionalism in newly enrolled medical students in China: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives

Settings and participants

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Preliminary study of the relationship between career choice motivation and understanding of professionalism in newly enrolled medical students in China: a cross-sectional study.

Similar Datasets

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