Objective: To evaluate the ideal medical professionalism of Thai Internal Medicine residents and compare the differences on this issue between the first-year (PGY1) and the final-year (PGY3) residents.

Materials and methods: This study was a cross-sectional study and enrolled the PGY1 and PGY 3. A self-reported questionnaire regarding their ideal medical professionalism in practice (10 items and the ideal professionalism). The residents were asked to rate each item by using a range of 0 to 10; while 0 was the least and 10 was the most. Scores of each factor were compared between both groups (PGY1 and PGY3).

Results: There were 15 PGY1 and 14 PGY3 participated in the study. The PGY1 group rated the top item was item no. 2 (Greeting you warmly; calling you by the name you prefer; being friendly, never crabby or rude), while the PGY3 rated item no. 10 (Using words you can understand when explaining any technical medical terms in plain language) as the highest score at 9.50/10. The PGY1 also rated the ideal professionalism lower than the PGY3 group (8.00 vs 8.86; p value 0.129). 

Conclusion: The ideal medical professionalism between the PGY1 and PGY3 may be different but not significant. The PGY1 focused more on greeting/communication gestures, the PGY3 paid more attention on understandable communication with patients.