Building Medical Ethics Education to Improve Japanese Medical Students' Attitudes Toward Respecting Patients' Rights

INTRODUCTION: Worldwide, in different ways, ethical dilemmas arise in medicine and life sciences. It is critical for medical professionals to respond with confidence when ethical challenges are addressed in their clinical practice. Medical ethics and bioethics education is recognized as an essential course of the medical curriculum. The course aims to provide students with knowledge and competencies on dealing with moral problems. OBJECTIVES: In this article, we aim to explore students’ views about the importance and role of medical ethics education for their future practice. Their suggestions on specific medical ethics and bioethics topics were also considered, as well as previous knowledge on ethics before they enrolled in university. METHODS: A paper questionnaire was developed and distributed among first-year foreign medical students from the Faculty of Medicine in the Medical University-Sofia in Bulgaria. All students participated in the study anonymously and voluntarily. The study was conducted during January and February 2020. RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were received from 366 medical students. Data collected demonstrates that only 19% of the students were taught ethics before enrolling in university and covered topics on philosophy and ethics, civil and human rights. The majority (92%) of the responders believe that the study of medical ethics and bioethics helps medical professionals to improve their skills in identifying ethical problems in their everyday practice. Interesting were the suggestions for topics in medical ethics and bioethics that needed further study during lectures and seminars and included principles of medical ethics and bioethics, ethical behavior in medicine and health care, ethical dimensions of new technologies in health care, ethical dimensions of clinical decisions and patients’ quality of life, ethics and health management. CONCLUSIONS: Medical ethics education is significant for future physicians, helping them to improve their skills in identifying ethical issues, and base their decisions on fundamental ethical principals in their everyday practice. Attention should be given to topics related to principles of medical ethics, models of patient-physician relationships, new technologies in health care, ethics and health policy.

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STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARDS MEDICAL ETHICS EDUCATION

CBU International Conference Proceedings ◽

10.12955/cbup.v7.1466 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 853-857

Author(s):

Alexandrina Vodenitcharova ◽

Nikoleta Leventi ◽

Kristina Popova

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Medical Ethics ◽

Ethics Education ◽

Ethical Decision ◽

Ethical Decision Making ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Medical Ethics Education ◽

Bioethics Education ◽

Medical University ◽

Future Work

Medical ethics (ME) and bioethics education are integrated in many medical schools, as a discipline, which aims to help future doctors to recognize ethical issues in healthcare and develop ethical decision-making skills. The main purpose of this paper was to explore students’ attitude towards medical ethics and bioethics, as a course of their education curriculum in the Medical University of Sofia in Bulgaria. The goal was to find out students expectations for the contribution of the acquired knowledge to reflect upon the ethical dimensions and human rights considerations of medicine, healthcare and science after the end of their ME course. A paper questionnaire was distributed to medical students with a letter indicating the purpose of the study. All the students were anonymous and voluntarily participated in the survey. Completed questionnaires were received from 344 medical students. According to the results, the majority (94%) of the participants are familiar with the principles of medical ethics and bioethics and supports (86%) the necessity of studying Medical ethics. Most of the students (87%) think that medical ethics education will help them in their future work and believe (86%) that this course will improve their professionalism, while their opinion (70%) is that medical ethics will lead to effectively co-working with other medical professionals.

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Is the current state of medical ethics education having an impact on medical students?

Online Journal of Health Ethics ◽

10.18785/ojhe.1002.02 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lauren Saltzburg

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Medical Ethics ◽

Ethics Education ◽

Medical Ethics Education ◽

Current State

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Research on the Status Quo and Countermeasures of Medical Ethics Education for Medical Students

2018 International Conference on Education, Psychology, and Management Science (ICEPMS 2018) ◽

10.25236/icepms.2018.101 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Medical Ethics ◽

Ethics Education ◽

Status Quo ◽

Medical Ethics Education ◽

The Status

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Paediatric Residents and Fellows Ethics (PERFEct) survey: perceptions of European trainees regarding ethical dilemmas

European Journal of Pediatrics ◽

10.1007/s00431-021-04231-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

M. C. den Boer ◽

A. Zanin ◽

J. M. Latour ◽

J. Brierley

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Medical Ethics ◽

Ethics Education ◽

Ethical Dilemmas ◽

Moral Dilemmas ◽

Ethics Training ◽

Healthcare Team ◽

Medical Ethics Education ◽

European Paediatric ◽

Future Practice

AbstractWith an increasingly complex healthcare environment, ethics is becoming a more critical part of medical education. We aimed to explore European paediatric trainees’ experiences of facing ethical dilemmas and their medical ethics education whilst assessing their perceptions of ethical dilemmas in current and future practice. The Young Sections of the European Academy of Paediatrics and European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care developed an explorative online survey covering demographics, ethical dilemmas faced and ethics training. The survey was made available in nine languages from November 2019 to January 2020 via newsletters and social media. Participants (n = 253) from 22 countries, predominantly female (82%) and residents (70%), with a median age of 29-years, completed the survey. The majority (58%) faced ethical dilemmas monthly or more frequently. Most ethics training was received by ethics lectures in medical school (81%) and on the job (60%). A disagreement between the healthcare team and patient/family was the most frequently faced moral dilemma (45%); the second was withholding/withdrawing life-prolonging measures (33%). The latter was considered the most challenging dilemma to resolve (50%). Respondents reported that ethical issues are not sufficiently addressed during their training and wished for more case-based teaching. Many have been personally affected by moral dilemmas, especially regarding withholding/withdrawing life-prolonging measures, and often felt inadequately supported.Conclusion: Paediatric trainees face many moral issues in daily practice and consider that training about managing current and future ethical dilemmas should be improved, such as by the provision of a core European paediatric ethics curriculum. What is Known:• Paediatric services are becoming more complex with an increase in ethical dilemmas asking for rigorous training in ethics.• Ethics training is often lacking or covered poorly in both pre- and postgraduate medical education curricula.• Existing ethics training for European paediatric trainees is haphazard and lacks standardisation. What is New:• The PaEdiatric Residents and Fellows Ethics (PERFEct) survey provides insight into the European paediatric trainees’ views regarding ethical dilemmas in their current and future practice.• European paediatric trainees report a lack of ethics training during paediatric residency and fellowship.• This study provides content suggestions for standardised medical ethics training for paediatric trainees in Europe.

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