BackgroundThe standards and outcomes outlined in the General Medical Council¿s publication `Tomorrow¿s Doctors¿ include proposals that medical professionalism be included in undergraduate curricula. Learning the values and attitudes necessary to become a `doctor as a professional¿ has traditionally been left largely to the informal and hidden curricula. There remains no consensus or confirmed evidence upon which to base best practice for teaching in this area. In 2010, as part of a revision of the fifth year curriculum the University of Bristol Medical School introduced tutorials which focused on students¿ achievement of the learning objectives in `Tomorrow¿s Doctors Outcomes 3: the doctor as a professional¿. This study sought to explore the students¿ experiences of these tutorials in order to develop the evidence base further.MethodsSixteen medical students participated in three focus-group interviews exploring their experiences of medical professionalism tutorials. A course evaluation questionnaire to all fifth year students also provided data. Data were analysed using the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.ResultsFour main themes were identified: students¿ aversion to `ticking-boxes¿, lack of engagement by the students, lack of engagement by the tutors and students¿ views on how medical professionalism should be taught.ConclusionsA curriculum innovation which placed the achievement of medical professionalism in the formal curriculum was not unanimously embraced by students or faculty. Further consideration of the students¿ aversion to `ticking-boxes¿ is warranted. With continued demand for increased accountability and transparency in medical education, detailed check-lists of specific learning objectives will continue to feature as a means by which medical schools and learners demonstrate attainment. Students¿ experiences and acceptance of these check-lists deserves attention in order to inform teaching and learning in this area. Learner and faculty `buy in¿ are imperative to the success of curriculum change and vital if the students are to attain the intended learning objectives. Effective faculty development and student induction programmes could be employed to facilitate engagement by both parties.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 December 2014.
All research outputs
#5,742,896
of 23,310,485 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medical Education
#903
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#77,438
of 364,244 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Education
#14
of 63 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,310,485 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,436 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 63 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
