• Erica Borgstrom, Simon Cohn, and Stephen Barclay.
• General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. eb442@medschl.cam.ac.uk
• J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Dec 1; 25 (12): 133013361330-6.

BackgroundNew values and practices associated with medical professionalism have created an increased interest in the concept. In the United Kingdom, it is a current concern in medical education and in the development of doctor appraisal and revalidation.ObjectiveTo investigate how final year medical students experience and interpret new values of professionalism as they emerge in relation to confronting dying patients and as they potentially conflict with older values that emerge through hidden dimensions of the curriculum.MethodsQualitative study using interpretative discourse analysis of anonymized student reflective portfolios. One hundred twenty-three final year undergraduate medical students (64 male and 59 female) from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine supplied 116 portfolios from general practice and 118 from hospital settings about patients receiving palliative or end of life care.ResultsProfessional values were prevalent in all the portfolios. Students emphasised patient-centered, holistic care, synonymous with a more contemporary idea of professionalism, in conjunction with values associated with the 'old' model of professionalism that had not be directly taught to them. Integrating 'new' professional values was at times problematic. Three main areas of potential conflict were identified: ethical considerations, doctor-patient interaction and subjective boundaries. Students explicitly and implicitly discussed several tensions and described strategies to resolve them.ConclusionsThe conflicts outlined arise from the mix of values associated with different models of professionalism. Analysis indicates that 'new' models are not simply replacing existing elements. Whilst this analysis is of accounts from students within one UK medical school, the experience of conflict between different notions of professionalism and the three broad domains in which this conflict arises are relevant in other areas of medicine and in different national contexts.

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