Key to health of healthcare: Respect

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Respect for patients and co-workers is essential to medical professionalism, medical students say.

However, a study of 595 third-year medical student narratives on professionalism by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and the Regenstrief Institute found one in four focused on respect.

Two-thirds of these narratives were negative -- a high percentage, especially when compared with other aspects of professional behavior, in which the proportion of negative narratives was significantly lower, the researchers say.

The students say they witnessed behavior such as: A physician who brought a doughnut and coffee into a patient room; a physician who continued a personal call while on medical rounds; a physician who patted a patient on the stomach while making a vulgar gesture about how much weight the patient needed to lose; an attending physician making a joke at the students' expense; and a student who surfed the Internet while another student made a presentation.

"It is important to put this study into perspective," co-author Dr. Thomas S. Inui, past president of the Regenstrief Institute and a professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine, says in a statement. "The IU environment is as humane and respectful as any I know, but students -- like the rest of us -- expect exemplary behaviors, regret departures from this expectation and seek to do better themselves."

The findings are published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.