Perception of Medical Professionalism Among Ophthalmology Residents in Saudi Arabia: A National Survey Study

PURPOSE: Studies have shown that there are significant differences in the concepts of medical professionalism among residents. Very few studies have specifically evaluated the perception of medical professionalism in a specific specialty. The aim of the study is to evaluate the perception of medical professionalism among ophthalmology residents and to assess the differences in the concept of professionalism between junior and senior residents. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a questionnaire to survey ophthalmology residents enrolled in different regions of Saudi Arabia in 2020. The ophthalmology residents included both junior and senior residents. In this study, “professionalism” concurred with the definition in the American Board of Internal Medicine's “Project Professionalism” and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. RESULTS: A total of 167 participants were recruited in the study. Out of the 127 participants who completed the survey, 60 (47.24%) were junior residents and 67 (52.76%) were senior residents. The scores for the attributes varied markedly. The lowest score obtained was 6.54 ± 3.349 for the attribute “In an emergency putting the welfare of others over my own safety” in the “Altrusim” domain and the highest score obtained was 9.62 ± 0.854 for the attribute “respect for co-workers” in the “Respect for others” domain. Out of the total residents who completed the survey (n = 127), 84 (66.14%) agreed that professionalism is teachable through a residency curriculum and 85 (66.93%) thought that it is testable. CONCLUSION: The characteristics of different attributes of professionalism varied significantly among the residents. The findings of the present study highlights that the conceptualization and perception of professionalism is changing and there is a need to focus on the resident curriculum to instill the values of professionalism. Targeted training is needed on the concepts of professionalism to develop behaviors consistent with medical professionalism and to evaluate the levels of professionalism among residents.