How can we know that ethics education produces ethical doctors?

Abstract

This article examines the challenges that medical ethics education faces, given its aim of producing ethical doctors. Starting with an account of the ethical doctor, it then inquires into the key areas of medical students' ethical development, viz. knowledge, habituation and action, and describes more specific outcomes in these areas. Methods of teaching aimed at achieving specific outcomes are also discussed. The authors then turn to some difficulties that stand in the way of achieving the desired outcomes of medical ethics education, and survey what has been achieved so far, by considering a number of studies that have evaluated the efficacy of a range of medical ethics courses. The article concludes by suggesting that medical ethics education should give attention to the problems of evaluation of ethics curricula as the discipline comes of age.

Professionalism in the Information and Communication Technology Industry

“…We found only one paper that looked directly at the ICT situation (Sharma and Burmeister, 2004), and it found no significant indication of efficacy. A number of studies of business ethics courses also suggest that their effect is not strong in the business community (Buchko & Buchko, 2009;HunJoon Park, 1998) and the same appears to be true of medical ethics courses in the medical area (Campbell, 2007).…”

A normative analysis to determine the goals of ethics education through utilizing three approaches: rational moral education, ethical acculturation, and learning throughout life

“…This criterion is also valid for ethics education. For instance, Campbell, Chin, and Voo (2007) explain the goals, assessment methods, and outcomes of medical ethics education through a three-level ascending pyramid, the first level of which is knowledge. Similarly, Sudhir K. Chawla et al (2015) This goal of ethics education refers to the possession and increase of the information about ethics-related subjects.…”

ADITHO – A Serious Game for Training and Evaluating Medical Ethics Skills

“…The importance of ethics in clinical profession is underestimated within the context of the whole medical curriculum. In particular, while students learn the theoretical contents of ethical knowledge, they commonly do not acquire more than a poor ability to act based on this knowledge [15]. The goal of education in ethics and professionalism should be oriented to develop a method to track students' capacity to apply their knowledge and skills in professional clinical scenarios [16].…”