Descriptors for unprofessional behaviours of

medical students: a systematic review and

categorisation
Marianne Mak-van der Vossen1,2,3*, Walther van Mook4,5, Stéphanie van der Burgt1,2, Joyce
Kors6 , Johannes C.F. Ket7 , Gerda Croiset1,2 and Rashmi Kusurkar1,2

4/Discusion :
1/Introduction:
Patient safety can indeed be threatened by the
unprofessional behavior of physicians. Research Goal : prepare students to handle with work
has shown that this can be predicted by a environment conditions
physician’s behavior as a medical student. It’s no
surprise then, that medical schools all over the Solutions : discusion students/teachers
world are increasingly paying attention to
teaching and assessing professionalism. Result : Professional behaviour 
responsibility for actions /ethical
2/Methods: practice/respect for patients/ reflection and
This systemic review was conducted by analyzing self-awareness/ teamwork /social responsibility
text-based data to identify descriptions of
unprofessional behavior of medical students
admitted by students or noted by stakeholders. A
review protocol based on Preferred Reporting Practical implications :
Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
[PRISMA]-statement was developed.
-The results of this review provide medical
The chosen articles had to meet up to the
educators and researchers in medical education
inclusion criteria : All languages included ,
with a common language for the description of
Articles discussing any form of unprofessionalism
unprofessional behaviour in preclinical and
(malpractice, misconduct, professionalism
clinical undergraduate medical education.
problems…) amongst medical students.

The review included studies from a wide range of

-it helps to solve the problem of “failure to fail”: it
countries, from January 1977–May 2016.
is necessary that educators conduct a
conversation with the student about their
3/Results: behavior :it leads to a valuable formative learning
-Targets of studying the behaviour of experience for the student.
medical students :
1) identify/ label the unprofessional behaviour
and create a common language to discuss it
2) guide/ help students presenting Further research :
unprofessional behavior
enhance/promote/better/ adjust their deportment Further action is desirable to reach
-Obstacles in evaluating unprofessional consensus among stake holders all over
behaviour : the world to provide a common ground for
-Alleged conflict of interests between students further researchs and reach agreement
and educators resulting in use of vague and about descriptors for unprofessional
ambiguous language behaviours,
-Unability to label an unprofessional deportment -this study generate interesting findings ,
-Evaluation reports lack the exact definition of especially because student’s motivation is
unprofessional behaviour dynamic and can be influenced.
-Unprofessionalism is dependent on the context
(time and culture)
-Four categories of unprofessional
behaviour:
5/Conclusion :
Failure to Dishonest Overall, unprofessional behaviours have been
engage : behaviour : classed in four themes: failure to engage,
dishonest behaviour, disrespectful behaviour and
-non-committment to -cheating , plagiarism , poor selfawareness.
assigned tasks , lack of lying , breaking rules In medical school these behaviours must be
organisation … and codes taken into consideration . And such a policy would
be involved in a culture of professionalism
Disrespectful Poor self- excellence, which is ultimately beneficial for all
behaviour : awareness : stakeholders, including patients.

-lack of verbal -avoiding feedback,

communication , bullying rejecting criticism…