Perception of professionalism among first year medical students in OIU

Background: Since days of Hippocrates, and passing through the Geneva Declaration and Helsinki Convention the eve of the 21st century guidelines and mission statements dominated the medical education and practice. Giving and receiving feedback are critical skills and should be taught earlyin the process of medical education, yet few studies discuss the effect of feedback curricula for firstyear medical students.Aim: To evaluate the concepts of professionalism among the first year medical students.Set up: The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Omdurman Islamic University where students are taughtMaterial and methods: The first year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Omdurman Islamic University were taught the Human Rights declaration issued by the United Nations in Dec 1948, The Principals of Islamic Human Rights, basics of medical ethics andthe Doctors Figh and University Requirement course of Islamic studies. A pretested questionnaire, self -administered questionnaire with five Likert scale was distributed.Results: The total number of the first year medical students was 257 but 207(80.5%) successfully completed the questionnaire. A total of 98% strongly agreed that the doctor must be truthful. 90% of the students and agreed that the doctor must be caring, kind and empathetic, respect the others, skilful, dedicated and Also, should comply with the patients' needs (One sample t-test 2-tailed P =0.0001). However, 23(13.8%) students disagree on the role of the doctor as an advocate for the patient. The students strongly agreed for the importance of working as a team and sparing the patient not to be harmed had any conflict raised (one sample t-test 2-tailed P = 0.0001).Conclusion: The first year medical students seem to have benefited of the Human Rights declaration issued by the United Nations in Dec 1948, The Principals of Islamic Human Rights, basics of medical ethics and the Doctors Fight and university requirement course of Islamic studies.About 9(5.4%) -24(12.4%) are not clear about the role of the medical professional in the society in advocating for patients.Key words: Medical students, Human Rights, medical ethics, professionalism