Medical students' perceptions of professional misconduct: relationship with typology and year of programme.

Aim: To examine the contribution of programme year and demographic factors to medical students' perceptions of evidence-based classification categories of professional misconduct.

Methods: Students at an Irish medical school were administered a cross-sectional survey comprising 31 vignettes of professional misconduct, which mapped onto a 12-category classification system. Students scored each item using a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 represents the least severe form of misconduct and 5 the most severe.