Professionalism in the world of teaching is a word that has become a "bad word." the reason for that is when every a Board of Education wanted teachers to do something for free, they cited "Teacher Professionalism." After a while teachers got tired of doing things for free.
In the world of Medical Colleges in the United States Professionalism exists for faculty and for medical students. The problem is what the faculty see as professionalism is for the medical students unrealistic. The major problem seems to be that medical students see things with different lens than the medical faculty. Their view is whatever is the easiest method is the best method.
Professionalism demands a high set of standards in the medical profession because you are dealing with life and death situations. First and second year medical students see themselves as "glorified graduate students." Some medical colleges attempt to treat medical students as student physicians or student doctors by calling them that in lecture halls or classrooms.
If medical students understand Professionalism, then why do they have to have proctors during exams? Would they consider cheating to get a better grade? Sure, in a heartbeat. Why? Because it is the easy way to accomplish a high grade. Everyone wants easy ways to do something. Professionalism for medical students is about how they see themselves. Unfortunately, without real practice in local hospitals and clinics, much of what they are learning seems to still be theory. On campus clinics and virtual labs are great practice but not real. Having a standarized patient tell a medical student if they are doing it right is not as good as working with a practicing clinician. If we as faculty and administrators treat the medical student as a glorified graduate student then our expectations will be met and the level of the bar of achievement will be lowered.

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I am sure every alleopathic and osteopathic medical school in the USA and in the World are always trying to improve their medical curriculum so that their students succeed on Board scores and succeed as future physicians. The word dynamic is defined as ever changing. The needs of the medical school curriculum need to constantly changed to keep up with technological changes, social changes, new medical advances, and changes in medical student needs. One way to this is ongoing assessment of every lecture/discussion, presentation, demonstration, or collaborative project given in the first two years of medical school. The way to do this is to have a volunteer team of medical students in the first year assess each lecture in a course and the faculty. The same would be true of second year students volunteering to assess every lecture in a thread or course. The student teams or CFA (class/faculty assessment) teams would number from 15 to 25 depending on the number of students in the first or second year.
The CFA student teams meet on their own time each week to discuss "round-robin" style their written observations and assessments of the past week's lectures and faculty. A group advisor, not the course director is assigned to help them with the deliberation process and keep them on track time-wise in their discussions. The group advisor could be an administrator or faculty member, but cannot interfere with students assessments. At the end of the course or thread the entire group breaks down into sub-groups to focus on the different threads or subjects and come up with a Comprehensive Assessment Report. The Comprehensive report is then condensed into a two page Executive Summary to be presented to the Curriculum Committee for approval. The group advisor keeps the group on track as to addressing lecture assessments not curriculum assessments or global college issues. Likewise all assessments are to be positive in nature .

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