The aim of this study is to gain insights into the current attitudes and practices of medical students in relation to digital professionalism during their development as students.

Why is professionalism important?

Doctors are required by their governing body, the General Medical Council (GMC), and expected by society and patients, to act in a professional manner. They must “make sure that [their] conduct at all times justifies [their] patients’ trust in [them] and the public’s trust in the profession. This obligation also applies to medical students and development of professionalism is essential in medical curricula. Core principles outline in the GMC’s Good Medical Practice include respecting patient confidentiality, avoiding expression of “personal beliefs, including political, religious or moral beliefs” to patients “in ways that exploit their vulnerability or that are likely to cause them distress” and challenging colleagues if they behave unprofessionally.

Why is digital professionalism important?

The rise in popularity of social media and Web 2.0 tools (which allow creation of online content), such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Youtube  and Flikr, has blurred the boundaries between the personal and professional lives of medical practitioners and students, with serious implications for professionalism online – digital professionalism.

Shore et al¹ identified four areas of ethical concern relating to the use of social media by health professionals: “boundary issues in the patient-physician relationship, privacy and confidentiality, implications of the nature and scope of information available online, and physicians’ self-presentation online” and these are echoed by many others.

This project investigates these concerns.

Currently we have completed analysing the results of our pilot study and are beginning dissemination.

The project contributes to the department’s strategy, based as it is in empirically-based applied research to the solution of real world problems and our commitment to work with a wide range of users, including health professionals.

The Digital Professionalism in Medical Education project (pilot) is part-funded by the Bowland Trust.

¹ Shore R, Halsey J, Shah K, Crigger B-J, Douglas S. Report of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affaris: Professionalism in the Use of Social Media. The Journal of Clinical Ethics. 2011;22(2):165-72.