Teaching Medical Professionalism with a Scenario-based Approach Using Role-Playing and Reflection: A Step towards Promoting Integration of Theory and Practice

Professionalism, as one of the core competencies of physicians, is essential for providing the patients with higher quality care. It is an abstract concept and its education and assessment need objective and operational methods. The present study aimed at teaching the concepts of professionalism based on a scenario-based approach using role-playing and reflection. This is a pre-experimental study (one-group pretest-posttest design) with a mixed method approach. The studywas conducted on 18 medical students (by voluntary sampling method) who had enrolled in the Medical Ethics Course atKashan University of Medical Sciences in 2020. Twelve scenarios were designed about the most prevalent issues of medical professionalism. In each session, one group of students played out their scenarios and then, the participants and instructors discussed their role-playing. Participants’ knowledge about professionalism was assessed at the beginning and end of each session, and they completed a satisfaction questionnaire and a reflection form. T-tests (one-sample and paired T-test) were applied for statistical analysis. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 26), and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The mean scores of the participants’ knowledge in posttest were significantly higher than those in the pre-test (P=0.042, t=-2.074). The mean scores of the participants’ role-playing quality (P<0.001) and satisfaction (P=0.001) were significantly higher than their corresponding test values. Qualitative analysis of the participants’ reflections revealed their satisfaction with the study intervention. The scenarios, role-playing, and reflection could provide an opportunity for operationalizing the conceptsof professionalism and deep learning of students. Medical instructors need to improve their knowledge and skills of using active methods in teaching professionalism to medical students.