Professionalism development of undergraduate medical students: Effect of time and transition

Changeover phases are essential and inevitable times in professional life, which let the learners adapt and grasp emerging opportunities for learning based on the past experiences with the catering of novel creativity as required in the present as well as emerging time. This study was carried out to examine the effectiveness of a professionalism course, during the transition from a non-clinical to clinical setting, within the context of undergraduate medical education. This observational study was conducted during 2019 to 2020, with pre- and post-professionalism course evaluation. We used the Dundee Poly-professionalism inventory-1: Academic Integrity, among the undergraduate medical students. Our results are based on the medical student's professional progress with the transition from 2nd year to 3rd year. During the 1st phase of the study, the participants at their Pre-Professionalism Course (PrPC) level in their 2nd medical year (only attended the introductory lectures for professionalism), showed a good understanding of professionalism. For the 2nd phase, when the same students, at their Post-Professionalism Course (PoPC) level, in their 3rd year (completed professionalism course) filled the same survey and it was found that there was no decline in their understanding of the topic, even after more than a year. They were even more aware of the significance of professionalism in their clinical settings. Despite a year gap, the understanding of professionalism among students was stable. Results helped us infer that time laps did not affect the professionalism concept learned earlier; rather during clinical settings, students become more aware of professionalism.