The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on professional attitudes of third-year medical students

Objective: In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the professional attitudes of third year medical students. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out with third year students of the Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine. 329 volunteer students participated to the study. A sociodemographic information form and a professional attitude scale from Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine were used as data collection tools. Results: The mean age of the students was 21.32±2.21 and 50.5% (n=166) of them were women. 61.7% of students (n=203) preferred medical school because of their ideal and desire to help people. Students' professional attitude scores were found as for accountability 30.36±4.26, enrichment 25.84±3.53, equity 18.23±2.39, honor and integrity 36.39±4.21, altruism 13.04±1.94, duty 22.23±2.87 and respect 8.95±1.34. Gender, program, nationality and whether there is a doctor in the family or not had no significant effect on attitude scores (p>0.05). The attitude scores of the students who preferred medical school for ideal and the desire to help people were significantly higher than those who preferred it for other reasons (p<0.001). Scores for the lower dimension of respect were significantly higher in the students without year loss (p<0.05). Compared to the results of the studies conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic, which have not yet been published, there was no significant difference in professionalism attitude scores other than the enrichment sub-dimension (p>0.05). A significant increase was found in the enrichment sub-dimension (p<0.001). Conclusion: Third-year students of medical school have positive attitudes towards medical professionalism and attitude scores are satisfying. Except the enrichment subdivision during the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no meaningful change in professionalism attitude scores. Key words: medical education, medical students, medical professionalism, attitude, PSCOM professionalism attitude scale