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. 2019 Aug;34(8):1641-1644.
doi: 10.1007/s11606-019-05063-x. Epub 2019 May 30.

Just a Game: the Dangers of Quantifying Medical Student Professionalism

Roshini Pinto-Powell  1   2   3 , Timothy Lahey  4   5
Affiliations

Just a Game: the Dangers of Quantifying Medical Student Professionalism

Roshini Pinto-Powell et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Aug.

Abstract

A medical student on her internal medicine clerkship says her numerical medical professionalism grade was "just a game." Building on this anecdote, we suggest there is good reason to believe that numerical summative assessments of medical student professionalism can, paradoxically, undermine medical student professionalism by sapping internal motivation and converting conversations about core professional values into just another hurdle to residency. We suggest better ways of supporting medical student professional development, including a portfolio comprised of written personal reflection and periodic 360° formative assessment in the context of longitudinal faculty coaching.

Keywords: disincentives; education; medical; professionalism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

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