| Summary: | Background: Teaching professionalism and communication skills have become an integral part of medical education. But professionalism cultures may themselves be at least partially culturally determined. It would be helpful to be able to 'map' regional professionalism cultures especially in an era of increasing globalisation and international mobility of practising doctors within and across regional boundaries.
Objectives: To explore medical students' views in three Arab Gulf countries (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain) of the appropriate sanctions for a one-time infraction in 34 unprofessional behaviors relating to academic integrity as a proxy for their perception of the relative importance of specific items of poor professionalism.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study, the Dundee Poly-professionalism Inventory I was administered to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th undergraduate medical students in three colleges of medicine at governmental universities in three Arab Gulf countries. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: There was extensive congruence and near congruence in the median recommended sanctions from the three sub-groups. Several areas of concern about respondents' perceptions of the importance of lapses in professionalism are identified.
Conclusion: The results suggest that the Dundee Polyprofessionalism Inventory I can be used to map the professional culture in medical schools in the Gulf states which seem to share a common culture. More research is needed about the implications for learning and teaching student professionalism.
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