Introduction:

professionalismis crucial in medical practice and can vary by specialty. Factors such as ethical behavior and commitment to continuing geducation influence professional performance.

Objective:

to identify be haviors associated with professionalism that differentiate physicians from clinical and surgical specialties.

Methodology:

424 physicians from Peru, Paraguay, and Cuba were evaluated, classified intoclinical (n = 296) and surgical (n = 128) areas. The CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) method was applied with 43 indicators and 7 dimensions to identify predictors of professionalism.

Results:

the CHAID analysis showed significant differences between specialties. Themost influential variable was “I sneak out of the hospital while on duty” (p<0.001), with a higher representation of physicians whon ever performed this practice in clinical areas (77.70 %) compared to surgical areas (22.30 %) and means of 1.13 versus 1.31, respectively. The variable “neglecting continuing education” (p=0.002) showed that physicians who did not neglect their training belonged mostly to clinical areas (71.90%) with a mean of 1.14, while those who did so reached 88.8 % (surgical: 11.2 %) with a mean of 1.28. In the dimensions “dishonesty and unsafe practice” and “irresponsible conduct and disabilities”, physicians with negative be haviors had higher means (1.36 and 1.29) than those without the sepractices (1.13 and 1.10).

Conclusions:

the CHAID analysis revealed key differences in medical professionalism by specialty, associating the absence of negative be haviors and commitment to continuing education with higher levels of professionalism, especially in clinical areas.

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