Jeannie Watkins 

Professional behaviour is something that we expect students who are training to be healthcare professionals to have knowledge of and demonstrate in preparation for professional practice. Researchinthisfieldshowsastrongcorrelationbetweenthosewhodemonstratepoor professional behaviour as students and disciplinary action once qualified. Within the university system there is a process for managing unprofessional behaviour but this is normally at the institutional level when there are clear professionalism issues and does not always make provision for students with low level professionalism issues which could be managed and remediated early. Whilst students are taught about professional expectations, there is a lack of formal assessment of low level issues in spite of the importance placed on it. This session proposes a fair, supportive and transparent process to formally recognise, record, and manage students' with low level professionalism concerns at programme level and building the evidence to escalate where necessary. 

References (maximum three) 

Unprofessional behavior in medical school is associated with subsequent disciplinary action by a state medical board Maxine A Papadakis 1, Carol S Hodgson, Arianne Teherani, Neal D Kohatsu 

Achieving good medical practice: interim guidance for PA and AA students (GMC, 2022)