Unprofessional or problematic behaviour of medical students outside the learning environment

This paper focuses on the question what to do with unprofessional or problematic behaviour of medical students outside the learning environment. Examples are given to raise awareness of the problem and initiate possible solutions. It is advised that medical schools keep an open eye for problematic behaviour outside the learning environment, also because documented unprofessional behaviour during medical training is a predictor of professional misconduct as a physician. Part of this paper was presented by the author as 'Professionalism: between wearing blinkers and big brother' at the AMEE conference, Edinburgh, UK, September 2004.