Teaching and Learning Medical Professionalism: an Input from Experienced Faculty and Young Graduates in a Tertiary Care Institute.

Introduction: Medical professionalism is of paramount importance especially in today's day and age. This study gives an insight on the preferred methods of teaching and learning professionalism among the young MBBS graduates and experienced faculty in a medical teaching institute. Material and methods: This was an observational study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from January 2019 to January 2020. It included 60 interns and 60 faculty members, who were interviewed for nine different methods of teaching and learning professionalism: (a) professional role model; (b) early clinical exposure; (c) recruiting faculty who had compressive training in medical education before joining the medical institute; (d) teaching and assessing communication skills to each student; (e) conducting seminar, didactic lecture and small group discussion; (f) reflective practice; (g) mentorship; (h) faculty development programme; (i) hidden curriculum. Each participant's response was analyzed using Wilcoxon rank-sum test on SPSS software version 22.
Results: Interns preferred early clinical exposure, recruiting faculty with prior comprehensive training in medical education and reflective practice as preferred methods, while faculty members preferred teaching and assessing communication skills for every student, early clinical exposure and mentorship.
Conclusion: Early clinical exposure, teaching and assessing communication skills, mentorship and reflective practice are the preferred methods of teaching and learning medical professionalism.