%0 Journal Article
%T Medical Student Professionalism Narratives: A Thematic Analysis and Interdisciplinary Comparative Investigation
%A Aaron W Bernard
%A Matthew Malone
%A Nicholas E Kman
%A Jeffrey M Caterino
%A Sorabh Khandelwal
%J BMC Emergency Medicine
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-227x-11-11
%X A thematic analysis was conducted on 377 professionalism narratives from medical students completing a required EM clerkship from July 2008 through May 2010. The narratives were analyzed using established thematic categories from prior research as well as basic descriptive characteristics. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the frequency of thematic categories to prior research in IM. Finally, emerging themes not fully appreciated in the established thematic categories were created using grounded theory.Observations involving interactions between attending physician and patient were most abundant. The narratives were coded as positive 198 times, negative 128 times, and hybrid 37 times. The two most abundant narrative themes involved manifesting respect (36.9%) and spending time (23.7%). Both of these themes were statistically more likely to be noted by students on EM clerkships compared to IM clerkships. Finally, one new theme regarding cynicism emerged during analysis.This analysis describes an informal curriculum that is diverse in themes. Student narratives suggest their clinical experiences to be influential on professionalism development. Medical students focus on different aspects of professionalism depending on clerkship specialty.A growing body of literature supports the notion that professionalism is largely learned in a latent, implicit, and experiential manner [1,2]. Classroom didactics, skills workshops and other explicit activities of the formal curriculum of medical school take a back seat to what has been termed the hidden and informal curriculum [1,2]. The hidden curriculum is defined as the organizational structure and culture that influences learning. This includes the customs, norms, and rituals of day-to-day activities such as rounding. The informal curriculum is the interpersonal experiences between students and teachers, other students, and patients. Learning through observations of and interactions with roles models is part of the informa
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-227X/11/11