Applying Conscientiousness Index: a tool to explore medical students professionalism in Indonesia

7/9/2016 12:00:00 AM

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Authors: Wolter Prakarsa Jaya , Elisabeth Rukmini

Publication date:  July09, 2016

Int J Med Educ.

Volume: 7:222-229   

Link:  https://www.ijme.net/ dan https://www.ijme.net/archive/7/medical-students-professionalism-in-indonesia.pdf                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

Abstract

 

Objectives:  This study was aimed  to  describe  lecturers’ perspective   concerning   the   suitable   Conscientiousness Index (CI) components and implementations, as well as to compare the CI scores in year 1–4 student batches.

 

Methods: Components were formulated from objective measurements  based on interviews with 12 faculty mem- bers. The components include:  attendance,  adherence  to rules, evaluative feedback submissions, performance in assignments  and  clinical skills, assignment  submissions, volunteerism, accomplishments, and general misconducts. The scores were collected from year 1-4 pre-clinical medical students  (N=144) during  the first semester of 2014-2015. Final interviews were conducted  with 9 faculty members. Quantitative analysis was performed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney test. Qualitative analysis was performed using content analysis.

 

Results: Using  Kruskal-Wallis test,  significant difference was found in the CI scores among all years (p=0.000). Post- hoc analysis using Mann-Whitney  test showed significant difference in all years except year 1 and 4 (p=0.388). Of the 9  lecturers  interviewed  during  the  second  interviews, 7 endorsed the importance of CI, while 2 doubted its applica- bility.

 

Conclusions:  Due to the unique characteristics of each block, our system had not been able to conduct a balanced CI evaluation, as compared to the  original research. We concluded that the implementation of CI would be highly dependent on the faculty members, with their commitment as the  main  pre-requisite.  We hope  to involve academic advisors as CI evaluators and improve our student-centered learning for future assessments. Further study is needed to investigate the longitudinal implementation of CI.

 

Keywords:  Conscientiousness Index (CI), professionalism, assessment, medical education