Raising the bar

Our professional identity provides the foundation upon which medical professionals deliver care; it defines how we interact with our colleagues, our patients, and the wider community at large. I vividly recall, during my orientation week in my first year of medical school, being welcomed to the fold by our Dean – and with this came the same expectations for professionalism and conduct as practising doctors.

However, as I reflect on my last four years, there has been a sliding discrepancy between theory and practice of the professional standards of medical students – a shift that cannot be ignored, as poor behaviours and attitudes could translate to poor patient outcomes if not addressed at the grassroots level.

This does not stem from one source and will not be solved by a single intervention. Instead, it requires the consideration of change at multiple levels: the university, the health service, and the collective body of medical students.

Professionalism starts long before entering the ranks of medical school. In turn, universities have a vital role in defining the qualities of the future generations of doctors. Too often, the focus remains on academic rigour; from high ATAR or GAMSAT scores, to increasingly competitive GPAs in the postgraduate sphere.

While these measures evaluate intellectual ability, they provide a paucity of insight into the integrity, motivation, resilience and empathy of the individual; these are the core attributes that underpin the modern doctor. The onus is on universities to implement a greater degree of values-based criteria, with frequent reassessment to ensure these align with contemporary expectations of medical conduct to meet the needs of the community.

As students exit the classroom and enter the wards, behaviours that are at odds with set expectations are easily overlooked. It is in this setting that poor habits and behaviours are consolidated and often go unaddressed. However, professionalism cannot be taught solely in a lecture theatre, and it can be modelled and corrected in real time in the clinical realm.