Mapping bioethics teaching in Brazilian dental schools

Abstract

A descriptive, exploratory, and cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the inclusion of bioethics in the curricula of Brazilian dental schools. Data collected between December 2021 and January 2022 from the websites of the 430 institutions that disclosed information about the program, underwent exploratory analysis to obtain descriptive statistics of categorical and continuous variables. Results showed that the introductory description of 245 courses (57%) referred to humanistic, critical and reflective education, and/or emphasized the presence of a bioethics discipline. Of the 345 curricula (80.2%) available, 139 (40.3%) had disciplines with “bioethics” on their name, taught mainly in the first two years (69%). Thus, although the National Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Dentistry postulate an education based on ethical/bioethical principles, less than half of the curriculums evaluated included a bioethics discipline.