In the eyes of the Dunedin public, what constitutes professionalism in medicine?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There has been much debate over the last two decades about professionalism in medicine. Opinions are diverse but, problematically, most are from the academic and medical viewpoints. There is substantially less discourse from the public perspective. AIM: To explore the Dunedin public’s perspective of important professional qualities in the medical profession. METHODS: Customers in pharmacies around Dunedin rated 18 different professional qualities on a five-point scale of importance in a self-administered anonymous survey. They also ranked their top five qualities, including their own ideas. RESULTS: Participants rated professional qualities categorised as patient autonomy (mean 4.6) and patient welfare (mean 4.7) of higher importance than qualities categorised as social justice (mean 3.9) and appearance (mean 3.7). Honesty was the top ranked professional quality overall (10.6% of respondents had it in their top five) and the next two top ranked were both concerning patient autonomy (listens carefully and treats you with respect). The most significant difference found between demographic groups and choices was that 53% of people with a highest educational qualification of secondary school or below rated ‘accepts a leadership role in the community’ as a very important or important quality, compared with 29.4% of people with a post-secondary school qualification (p-value <0.001). DISCUSSION: This has implications for the current move to make doctors take on more social responsibility within the health care system. It is imperative to have both society and the medical profession aiming for common goals and the challenge of this decade will be striking the balance. KEYWORDS: New Zealand; professionalism; public; social justice; patient autonomy; patient welfare