Undergraduate medical students' expectative of their desired profile as medical doctors

Abstract

Background, During the last few years, multiple new medical schools have emerged in Chile, associated to the constant preoccupation to provide a good quality medical care. This created the need to evaluate medical training programs and to open a discussion about the attributes that a good physician should have. Aim: To evaluate the medical student's perception of the ideal medical doctor profile. Material and methods: An analytical, descriptive and cross sectional study was designed. Eleven second year, 11 third year, nine fourth year, 13 fifth year, 6 sixth year and 8 seventh year students were studied. Data collection was gathered by focus groups. Codes and triangulation were used for data analysis. Results: As attitudes and moral-ethical values, students valued the absence of discrimination a listening attitude and empathy, Among job related issues, they valued responsibility and punctuality. Emotional and legal self-care were valued as self related attitudes. Among skills, competences and capacities, a value was given to communicational skills, team work and professional easiness. Knowledge about medical and non medical topics was appraised. The valued attributes among duties and activities were patient diagnosis. treatment and education, team leadership and continuous medical training. Conclusions: These findings should help to design new curricula for medical schools (Rev Med Chile 2006; 134: 947-54).