en آموزش پزشکی Medical Education پژوهشي اصیل Orginal Research <span style="line-height:2;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><b>Background & Objective: </b>Medical professionalism and identity formation are typically learned through hands-on medical training and practice. But during the early COVID&ndash;19 pandemic, medical students were displaced from campus. However, they could engage with the characteristics of the profession by critically observing the response of healthcare professionals to the COVID&ndash;19 pandemic through news, such other means. and personal experience. The purpose of this study was to explore if preclinical students could discern the core values of their profession in such unusual circumstances.<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span><br> <b>Material & Methods:</b> <span lang="EN-IN">The qualitative study, content analysis based on the principles of grounded theory, was conducted from October 2020 &ndash; January 2021, among the preclinical students of a medical college in India. After an online sensitization, they were asked to write reflection notes. The reflection notes of all 28 respondents were analysed thematically using QDA Miner Lite 2.0.5.</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span><br> <b>Results:</b> <span lang="EN-IN">There were 28 respondents. An exhaustive number of 15 themes emerged from the analysis of their reflection notes that encompassed various aspects of the medical profession &ndash; ranging from good moral character attributes of a healthcare professional to hazards of the profession to the students taking pride in being associated with it. What is identified by a student as being important, may be expected to be learned better by them. Therefore, we may expect these students to have learned about the attributes of medical professionalism and identity formation, which they had identified through reflection, more meaningfully when they joined back</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span><br> <b>Conclusion:</b> <span lang="EN-IN">Even while off campus, students likely continued to learn about their profession. It is reasonable to expect they may gain a deep understanding of their profession upon resuming their training on campus.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> Health profession, medical professionalism, professional identity formation, reflective thinking, pandemic 76 86 http://edujournal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-12-1658-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Prerna Agarwal dr.preranaagarwal@gmail.com 5300319475328460033466 5300319475328460033466 Yes Department of Physiology, Government Institute of Medical Sciences, Greater Noida 201310, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dalia A. Biswas dalia_biswas@yahoo.co.in 5300319475328460033467 5300319475328460033467 No Department of Physiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education & Research (DU), Sawangi (Meghe) 442107, Wardha, Maharashtra, India