Assessment of safety attitudes, professionalism and exploration of medical students’ experiences

BACKGROUND: The present study was conducted to examine the interns’ perceptions of safety attitude and professionalism and to explore their experiences about adherence to the principles during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: The present study was a mixed-method that was performed in two quantitative and qualitative stages. The medical interns at X University (n = 140) were entered. In the quantitative phase, the assessment of the interns’ Safety Attitudes and Professionalism was conducted by a survey. In the qualitative phase, data were gathered by semi-structured interviews. The experiences of participants were analyzed by the inductive content analysis approach of Graneheim and Lundman. RESULTS: Participants’ perception scores on safety attitude and professionalism were 98.02 (14.78). The results were explained in a theme of “weakness in systemic accountability in compliance with professionalism and safety”. The theme included three categories: ‘support system inadequacy’, and ‘null curriculum in safety and professionalism education’. CONCLUSION: The present results showed participants’ perception scores on safety attitude and professionalism were below the moderate level. The systemic issues were explored as influencing factors in the occurrence of unsafe and unprofessional behaviors. They reported the weakness of the support system (individual, teamwork, mental health, well-being, management, and culture), and the null curriculum in education of professional, and safety principles effective on unprofessional and unsafe behaviors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is recommended to create mechanisms to support the development of professionalism of healthcare workers, especially, novice providers and students, and pay attention to the safety and professionalism in formal and informal educational programs.