Table 4 Opinions of patients and students related to the dimension “Weaknesses in the training in professionalism”

• I would like to see a few more students, and let’s say teachers, willing to help, showing solidarity in what they give… I think that somehow all the professions can show some solidarity with the society and the country we live in, and I feel that sometimes health professionals, in general, are a little selfish in this respect, this is what I feel, and I feel that today I cannot pay the bill. Patient

• This is a university, you don’t come here just to be trained as a professional but also to be trained as a person, I think that there is a lack of space for diffusion, dialogue, giving ideas, solving problems, and here, I don’t know …I think that those who participate in institutions, organisations must be … 5%? It’s very little, that is, almost nothing. Student

• We have always been told to relate to each other, to work as a team, interdisciplinary and all that, but I think that little is done to make us relate to each other. Student

Weaknesses in the training of the faculty members

• There are no teachers here, here the teachers are specialists who come and teach you their specialty, but they don’t have the pedagogical or teaching part they should have. Student

• It affects when the teacher starts to be unpleasant and has a not very professional behaviour, because in the end you somehow try to imitate the teacher, or follow him, these behaviours are stuck in you. Student

• Once I had a patient with cancer and he/she had to have an operation … he/she started to tell me his/her things because he/she wanted a dental treatment and the teacher said in front of the patient “don’t get involved in this mess, this patient is going to die any minute and you are going to be left halfway through”. Student

• I think that the fact to scold or correct a student should be made in a more pedagogical manner, not as angrily as I once witnessed. Patient

• It struck me today when the student was much more sympathetic towards my problem than the teacher, who said:” just close it”. The student took care of my tooth, she did it with affection. I feel that this is very important and hopefully she won’t lose it in the future when she becomes a professional. Patient

Weaknesses of the educational environment

• This is a very controversial topic because from the fourth year onwards, people show how they really are, because people who were good people, or good students, become totally different people in order to finish their treatment, being sure that they can do anything to finish their programme and they don’t give a damn about the rest. Student

• The students have a different view of what they are doing. Here they are doing it for their career, here they are doing it for their course, here they are doing it so that their job is considered well done, in order to pass the course, this is their goal, so in this regard their behaviour is obvious. When they reach their goal, they have to live, and within that living is the fact that they dehumanize themselves. Patient