Attitudes of Medical Faculty Enrolled in Masters in Health Professions Education towards Professionalism in a Private Pakistani University: a Mixed-Methods Study
Keywords:
Professionalism, Faculty, AttitudeAbstract
Objective: To examine the attitudes of medical faculty enrolled in the Masters in Health Professions Education (MHPE) program towards professionalism at Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad.
Methodology: The study was conducted at Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad from August 2024 to January 2025 after ethical approval. After taking informed consent, universal sampling technique was used to enroll all 40 MHPE faculty members. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered to explore dimensions of professionalism including excellence, altruism, honor & integrity, accountability, duty and respect. A 36-item validated Likert-scale questionnaire assessed attitude of MHPE faculty, complemented by four in-depth semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. For the analysis of qualitative data, Notta software was used.
Results: Quantitative analysis revealed most of the participants were females [28(70%)] and belonged to MBBS background [21(52.5%)]. Our participants exhibited poor professional attitudes indicated by low mean scores of professionalism (2.07-/+0.45) and its six domains. A significant positive correlation was present between professionalism and variables such as excellence (r=0.77), duty (r=0.68), and altruism (r=0.68). Regression analysis confirmed these as key predictors. Qualitative themes highlighted challenges in curriculum integration, resource gaps, and the influence of institutional culture.
Conclusion: Our results showed poor attitudes of MHPE enrolled medical faculty towards professionalism indicated by low mean scores of professionalism and its six domains of altruism, respect, honor & integrity, accountability, duty, and excellence. Our thematic analysis identified professionalism as one of the fundamentals of medical education. Time & resource constraints and role ambiguity were major challenges towards integration of professionalism into medical courses and the role of institutional support was also highlighted.
References
1. Badshah A, Mahboob U, Yousaf A. How to teach professionalism in a clinical context. JCPSP. 2022; 32(3):275-7. doi:10.29271/jcpsp.2022.03.275.
2. Bashir A, McTaggart IJ. Importance of faculty role modelling for teaching professionalism to medical students: individual versus institutional responsibility. J Taibah Univ Med Sci. 2021; 17(1):112-9. doi:10.1016/j.jtumed.2021.06.009.
3. O'Connor S, Chu CH, Thilo F, Lee JJ, Mather C, Topaz M. Professionalism in a digital and mobile world: a way forward for nursing. J Adv Nurs. 2020; 76(1):4-6. doi:10.1111/jan.14224.
4. Cornett M, Palermo C, Ash S. Professional identity research in the health professions-a scoping review. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2023; 28(2):589-642. doi:10.1007/s10459-022-10171-1.
5. Sattar K, Jawaid SA. From challenges to solutions: mapping the landscape of medical professionalism and ethics in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2024; 40(4):557-8. doi:10.12669/pjms.40.4.9346.
6. Thirumoorthy T, Shelat VG. Understanding medical professionalism. Singapore Med J. 2025; 66(2):114-8. doi:10.4103/singaporemedj.SMJ-2023-059.
7. Manzoor A, Baig LA, Aly SM. Attitudes of faculty and residents of surgical specialties towards professionalism at a tertiary care hospital of Islamabad. Pak J Med Sci. 2019; 35(2):371-6. doi:10.12669/pjms.35.2.387.
8. Akbar Z, Khan RA, Khan HF, Yasmeen R. Development and validation of an instrument to measure the Micro-Learning Environment of Students (MLEM). BMC Med Educ. 2023; 23(1):395. doi:10.1186/s12909-023-04381-3.
9. Fahmirauf AFM, Ariffin AST, Arsad A, Shalihin MSE. Medical professionalism and its association among clinical medical students. AJMHS. 2025; 8(1):153-63. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392169036 _Medical_Professionalism_and_its_Association_among_Clinical_Medical_Students.
10. Ghaznavi SBY, Mehmood SI. Assessing the professionalism levels of undergraduate medical students at a medical college. J Muhammad Med Coll. 2024; 14(2):69-75. doi:10.62118/jmmc.v14i2.321.
11. Dhikale PT, Shrivastava SR, Srinivasan S. Perspectives about professionalism among undergraduate students in a medical college in India: a qualitative study. Indian J Community Med. 2020; 45(2):230-4. doi:10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_238_19.
12. Sattar K, Akram A, Ahmad T, Bashir U. Professionalism development of undergraduate medical students: Effect of time and transition. Medicine (Baltimore). 2021; 100(9):e23580. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000023580.
13. Rasul S, Zahid Bashir M, Saleem S, Tahir S, Rasheed A, Ali Sabir M. Assessment of medical professionalism among students and faculty members of Shalamar Medical and Dental College, Lahore. J Adv Med Educ Prof. 2021; 9(4):204-10. doi:10.30476/JAMP.2021.88433.1342.
14. Ahmed FK, Farooq F, Mushtaque S, Malik A, Mushtaque H, Azhar R. Evaluation of medical professionalism among the students and faculty members of public and private medical colleges of Karachi, Pakistan a comparative study. PJMHS. 2022; 16(01):866-9. doi:10.53350/pjmhs 22161866.
15. Jalil A, Mahmood QK, Fischer F. Young medical doctors' perspectives on professionalism: a qualitative study conducted in public hospitals in Pakistan. BMC Health Serv Res. 2020; 20(1):847. doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05681-w.
16. Alipour F, Shahvari Z, Asghari F, Samadi S, Amini H. Personal factors affecting medical professionalism: a qualitative study in Iran. J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2020; 13:3. doi:10.18502/jmehm.v13i3.2842.
17. Bhardwaj A. Medical professionalism in the provision of clinical care in healthcare organizations. J Healthc Leadersh. 2022; 14:183-9. doi:10.2147/JHL.S383069.
18. Khan M, Jamil B, Muhammad F, Bilal N, Hassan B. Clinical teachers as role models: perception of undergraduate medical students in medical colleges of Pakistan using role model apperception tool. J Med Sci. 2023; 31(1):10-6. doi:10.52764/jms.23.31.1.2.
19. Sana MK, Fatima A, Rafay A, Imran N. Professionalism in hospitals: house officers and residents understanding of medical professionalism. Annals KEMU. 2020; 26(2):353-8. doi:10.21649/akemu.v26i2.3926.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Sharif Medical & Dental College is licensed and distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
