Student and faculty observations and perceptions of professionalism in online domain scenarios

To relate common online scenarios to tenets of professionalism, assess frequency of observed scenarios in 4 online domains, and compare second-year (P2) pharmacy students, fourth-year (P4) pharmacy students', and faculty members' perceptions of professionalism.

A 63-item survey instrument consisting of scenarios of behavior in online domains was developed. Using a Likert scale, participants reported whether they had observed each scenario and whether each scenario was professional.

Of the 296 participants who completed the survey instrument, 53% were P2 students, 49% were P4 students, and 68% were faculty members. Most of the observed scenario responses were for social networking sites. There were statistical differences among the 3 cohorts' perception over whether a scenario demonstrated professional behavior in 6 of the 10 most frequently observed scenarios, and 4 out of 6 of these scenarios were in the social networking domain.

Second-year pharmacy students and faculty members were more in alignment with their perception of professionalism then P4 students, suggesting that P4 students may be more complacent in their perception of professionalism.