Abstract
One of the impediments to teaching professionalism is unprofessional behavior amongst clinical teachers. No method of reliably assessing the professional behavior of clinical teachers has yet been reported. The aim of this project was to develop and pilot such a tool. Thirty-four desirable professional behaviors in clinical teachers were identified. Medical students (n = 13) and medical educators (n = 30) rated their importance and validity. Based on the ratings, 16 behaviors in 4 dimensions were included in an assessment form that was piloted in the Department of Pediatrics at McGill University, with medical students (n = 94) rating the professionalism of their clinical faculty (n = 20). One hundred and ninety forms were returned with between 1 and 22 evaluations per faculty member. Scores ranged from 25 to 48 (maximum rating = 48, mean score = 42.7, SD = 6.29). A generalizability analysis was conducted; internal consistency was 0.89, and reliability for a mean of 8.23 ratings per faculty member was 0.53. Inter-rater reliability for one item was 0.11, potentially due to the context specificity of behavior or low frequency of unprofessional behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis revealed 3 factors with eigen values over 1. Assessment of the professionalism of clinical teaching faculty appears to be feasible, acceptable and reasonably reliable. The explicit evaluation of professional conduct in clinical faculty could encourage the maintenance of professional behaviors and potentially decrease the effects of negative role modeling and positively affect the hidden and informal curricula.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Sonia Faremo in analyzing the data and Dr. Wendy MacDonald and Ms. Judy Browning of the Department of Paediatrics, without whom it would not have been possible to complete the project. They would also like to express their gratitude to the faculty members and students of McGill University who gave so generously of their time.
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Sarah Todhunter, now an anesthetist in training in the UK, was a final year medical student at Oxford University when she initiated this project and developed the form described in this paper during an elective in medical education at the Center for Medical Education of McGill University.
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Todhunter, S., Cruess, S.R., Cruess, R.L. et al. Developing and piloting a form for student assessment of faculty professionalism. Adv in Health Sci Educ 16, 223–238 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-010-9257-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-010-9257-0