Case-Based Teaching of Ethics Ethical Challenges Raised by Undergraduate Medical Students during a Bioethics Course (What Students Bring to the Classroom?)

Abstract

Teaching ethics for undergraduate medical students provides an excellent opportunity to equip them with essential skills to deal with ethical dilemmas that they may face in their future career. Teaching bioethics is challenging for clinical teachers. The current study reports on one of the assignments in which the students present a real case with analysis of the relevant ethical issues. Each student registered in ethics course writes a report analyzing an ethical case. The report was carefully read and the most prominent three ethical issues in the incident were identified, any related additional comments or details were noted. The data collection forms were analyzed using SPSS version 22. About half of the incidents (49%) occurred in government hospitals. Of the total incidents, most of the incidents occurred in the outpatient care (42.9%), inpatient care (22.7%), and emergency room (20.6%). About one third of the cases were related to patient autonomy and choice (30.4%), followed by confidentiality and privacy issues (21.1%). Informed consent represented 8%, medical errors (6.1%), necessity issues (4.9%), abortion (4.5%) and professionalism (4%). Students were able to recognize the ethical issues in the cases, which indirectly reflected their ethical sensitivity. They were able to utilize the ethical principles they learned during the course and apply these principles. They were able to recognize, analyze, and criticize unethical and unprofessional behaviors of their own clinical teachers. Students experiences with ethical issues reflected in the cases are important and beneficial.

Current state of ethical challenges reported in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review & bibliometric analysis from 2010 to 2021

“…Thus, there was a lack of knowledge about organ donation regulations, withholding or stopping mechanical ventilation, conflict with family, and advice from the ethics committee, religious aspects, brain death, DNR policies, the existence of the Saudi PBR [ 23 , 24 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…The conclusions and recommendations of all included articles were consistent, stating that teaching bioethics is a complex and long-term process that helps graduate and undergraduate students embrace the roots of their culture, knowledge, and principles [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. While there is no single best model for teaching medical ethics, teaching bioethics is essential to educating medical students by developing a comprehensive bioethics curriculum.…”

“…However, it would be fair to note that there is still limited guidance on teaching and learning bioethics, which will inevitably have a tangible impact on society in the future [1,2]. Despite the researchers' growing interest in medical ethics, this systematic review has shown that from 2010 to 2021, only ten articles were published studying the 'Medical Ethics Curriculum' in KSA [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Of these ten articles, the research by El-Sobkey et al ( 2014) is in the list of the most cited articles with 21 citations.…”

“…Of these ten articles, the research by El-Sobkey et al ( 2014) is in the list of the most cited articles with 21 citations. Overall synthesis of this domain showed that regardless of the region, target population, most participants in all included studies agreed on the importance of studying the principles of medical ethics as a discipline with its methods, literature, vocabulary, and content [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Although some participants completed theoretical ethics classes while attending medical school, the theory does not address the practical ethical dilemma faced in daily practice after graduation [25,[27][28][29]31].…”

“…While there is no single best model for teaching medical ethics, teaching bioethics is essential to educating medical students by developing a comprehensive bioethics curriculum. Students are encouraged to participate in all processes actively [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The learning outcomes for each activity should be used as a guide for assessing the adequacy of the bioethics curriculum, together with an assessment of effectiveness.…”