Medical Professionalism and Self‐Reflection in Medical Education

Recently, unprofessional behavior by physicians and misconduct by medical students have led to increased public concern over medical professionalism. Many studies have been conducted to explore strategies that reinforce professionalism education and prevent misconduct in medical students. However, most studies focused on defining the medical professionalism and its conceptual components. In this study, we conducted a conceptual analysis based on the literature review to categorize issues of unprofessional behavior, and identified doctors’ indifference to self and others as the reason for the unprofessional behavior. In this regard, self-reflection provides a practical tool to overcome such indifference. We suggest ‘education and evaluation based on self-reflection and reflective practices’ as the effective strategies to enhance the professionalism in medical students.