Students' perception on medical professionalism: the psychometric perspective.

Background: The main purpose of this study was to identify and understand the structure of latent traits underlying the concept of medical professionalism of Taiwanese students.

Methods: A 32 item questionnaire assessing medical professionalism derived from the definition by the American Board Internal Medicine (ABIM) was distributed to 133 year seven medical students. A five-point rating scale of importance was used to identify the extent of their values or beliefs in each item.

Results: The three items perceived most important were: accountability to patients, respect for patients and their families; and integrity and prudence. The least important component underlying professionalism was ``enduring unavoidable risks to oneself when a patient's welfare is at stake''. Factor analysis resulted in eight factors: ``commitment to care'' (factor 1); ``righteous and rule-abiding'' (factor 2); ``pursuing quality patient care'' (factor 3), ``habit of professional practice'' (factor 4); ``interpersonal relationship'' (factor 5); ``patient-oriented'' issues (factor 6); physician's ``self-development'' (factor 7); and finally, ``respect for others'' (factor 8). Most of the variance was contributed by factor 1 (34.9%%). The mean score of factors ranged from 3.84 (factor 1: commitment to care) to 4.7 (factor 8: respect of others), and the reliability alphas ranged from 0.86 to 0.66.

Conclusions: These results of young physicians'' professional values have implications for medical school curriculum for improvement.