Understanding of the informal curriculum and differences that exist between clerkships may help educators engage students and optimize learning [13]. Reflective exercises have been demonstrated to improve knowledge acquisition and clinical skills [14-16]. To encourage diversity of reflection, prevent redundant exercises, and to maximize the use of experiences by clinical settings, educators may want to consider giving greater focus and direction to reflective exercises. During the thematic

analysis of ED NLG919 narratives one new theme emerged regarding cynicism. A prior analysis of professionalism Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical narratives specific to the ED also found issues of cynicism to be prominent in the ED setting [17]. Medical students and other professionals have noted that a major problem with their education is a failure of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical role models to live up to the standards set forth by the college of medicine [18]. This investigation highlights that problem again. Narratives of physicians appropriately interacting with “drug seeking” patients were very common, but so too were lapses in professionalism. Together with the problematic theme of cynicism this work suggests areas of potential improvement for Emergency Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Physicians. Prior work has been done at the institutional level to address global issues of professionalism with mixed results [19,20]. Promoting institutional changes to the professionalism culture needs

new approaches [21]. Perhaps, targeting specific issues based on practice setting can make these programs more effective. We hope Emergency Physicians use the data presented here to make appropriate changes to achieve optimal professionalism in the ED. Limitations The major limitation of this work was the comparison of two specialties not at the same institution. There were also subtle differences in instructions Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical given to students regarding the writing of narratives [3]. Finally, our work focused on narratives from fourth-year medical students while the comparative data was primarily from third-year medical students [3]. Prior Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reports describing changes in student empathy and views of professionalism between years highlight this limitation [22,23]. A further study limitation is the inherent difficulty

of performing scientific investigations regarding the topic of professionalism. This stems from a lack of clear and precise definitions of what exactly professionalism is in clinical practice [24]. Conclusions This analysis describes an informal curriculum that is diverse in themes. Student narratives suggest their clinical experiences GBA3 to be influential on professionalism development. Medical students focus on different aspects of professionalism depending on clerkship specialty. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions AWB designed the study, performed the qualitative analysis, and drafted the manuscript. MM designed the study, performed the qualitative analysis, and drafted the manuscript.