Teaching professional behaviour

Problem. Patients complain a lot about the (un)professional behaviour of their general practitioners (GP's). This is the reason for an ongoing debate about unprofessional behaviour of doctors. Papadakis, Arnold, Blank, Holmboe and Lipner (2008) revealed a relation between unprofessional behaviour in medical school and unprofessional behaviour in later practice. Professional behaviour should be improved by teaching about professional behaviour at medical school (Cruess & Cruess, 1997). This leads to the research question: What is the best way to teach professional behaviour in the training of general practitioners (GP's), according to students and their teachers? Method. The research was qualitative and it consisted of three parts. Firstly a pilot focus group with students, secondly interviews with students, and thirdly interviews with teachers. The interviews were audio recorded, the recordings were transcribed and coded. Results. The information obtained from the students showed that the students were not aware of a specific definition of professional behaviour. Every participant had a different explanation. Professional behaviour is not taught explicitly, it is more intertwined through all courses. The students are convinced that in the future students will benefit more when professional behaviour is taught explicitly. The students also had some ideas for a future curriculum, for instance: to use situations taken from daily life and to discuss professional behaviour or to use situations described in the news. And the teachers must name professional behaviour explicitly. The teachers agreed that professional behaviour is not taught explicitly, they agreed that it should be taught more explicitly. They think the definition of professional behaviour should be clear, also for the students. There is a rating list (the 'ComBel') with the aspects of professional behaviour. The students are assessed based upon the aspects given on that list, this list gives an clear explanation of what professional behaviour exist of. The teachers think it is useful to use daily situations to teach professional behaviour more explicitly, but case education is already part of the curriculum. Explicitly mentioning when it is about professional behaviour is not a problem for them. Conclusion/discussion. Both students and teachers think it is wise to teach professional behaviour more explicitly. There are a couple of ideas for future lessons in order to decrease the number of complaints about GP's: i.e. discussing realistic, daily life situations, connecting theory and practical situations and explicitly mentioning when it is about professional behaviour. It should be considered to fit these lessons into the future curriculum. The search for participants was hard and took a long time. For a more confirmed answer more interviews are necessary