Simplified Thematic Engagement of Professionalism Scale (STEPS): Promoting Feedback Practice in Nurturing Professionalism

Assessment of medical professionalism is often challenged by the subjectivity of its construct and lack of feedback practice to nurture professional growth. However transmitting professionalism alone has not been shown to improve professional behaviour therefore professionalism need to be assessed if it is viewed as relevant. The authors provided description and guidelines on the use of Simplified Thematic Engagement of Professionalism Scale (STEPS) as summative and formative assessment tool for assessing professionalism attributes. STEPS was developed based on the Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) format that utilise multiple short encounter assessment and incorporated professionalism values from a local study. The formative component has 15 attributes that were categorised into personal, profession, patient and public. This is assessed using seven scale rubric that promotes feedback practice using feed up, feed back and feed forward concept. The summative component utilises global rating that will be collated longitudinally to form a more robust evaluation of student professionalism. Current investigations are ongoing especially to ascertain the usability and validity of STEPS as peer assessment and self-assessment tool.