Student response to reports of unprofessional behavior: assessing risk of subsequent professional problems in medical school.

Background: An early concern note (ECN) program is used by some medical schools to identify, counsel, and intervene when students exhibit unprofessional behavior. Student maturity, insight, propensity for reflection, and receptiveness to feedback have been suggested as predictors of future behavior.

Objective: We hypothesized that (a) classifying students with a first ECN based on their response to the report would identify students at risk of repeat ECNs better than the action that prompted it and (b) receipt of multiple ECNs would identify students at risk of adverse academic events.

Effects of comprehensive educational reforms on academic success in a diverse student body.

Context: Calls for medical curriculum reform and increased student diversity in the USA have seen mixed success: performance outcomes following curriculum revisions have been inconsistent and national matriculation of under-represented minority (URM) students has not met aspirations. Published innovations in curricula, academic support and pipeline programmes usually describe isolated interventions that fail to affect curriculum-level outcomes.

Methods: United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 performance and graduation rates were analysed for three classes of medical students before (matriculated 1995-1997, n=517) and after (matriculated 2003-2005, n=597) implementing broad-based reforms in our education system.

Medical student professionalism: are we measuring the right behaviors? A comparison of professional lapses by students and physicians.

Background: Examining the relationship between unprofessional behaviors observed in medical students and those manifested by physicians is important in determining whether medical school faculty are observing and reporting behaviors relevant to medical practice.

Method: This study compares the relationship between unprofessional behaviors identified in students at our medical school through Early Concern Notes, and behaviors for which physicians were sanctioned by our state medical board.

Results: The majority of reports in both groups were related to lapses in professional responsibility and integrity, and the specific behaviors identified in the groups were similar.

Do students do what they write and write what they do? The match between the patient encounter and patient note.

Background: Patient notes are used for a variety of purposes in health care. Medical students are taught the structure of patient notes early in training. Review of patient notes are then used to assess synthesis and integration of patient information.

Student Perceptions of the Professional Behavior of Faculty Physicians.

This study was conducted to obtain a baseline understanding of the professional behavior of clinical faculty physicians from the medical students' perspective. Students completed a professionalism evaluation of supervising faculty at the end of each required third-year clerkship over a one year period. Results were analyzed by specific behaviors and across clerkships.