Evaluation of the Impact of Courses on Islamic Education and Religious Concepts on the Promotion of Medical Ethics: A Case Study on the Students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background According to the status of ethics in medical education and owing to the students’ talent and rational spirit, it seems that the education system, despite the emphasis on courses such as medical ethics, should focus on the improvement of teaching quality of Islamic education and explanation of religious concepts, since emphasis on increasing the quality of Islamic education leads to the promotion of medical ethics. Objectives The current study aimed at evaluating the impact of courses on Islamic education and religious concepts on the promotion of medical ethics among the students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Methods The current descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on 5831 students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences as the statistical population in the academic year of 2016 - 2017. Using the Morgan table, 360 subjects were selected as the study sample using stratified random sampling method. In order to collect data, a standard questionnaire, which its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, was used. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with AMOS software. Results Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The models could explain the measurement indices, and based on the adopted method, the fitting indices of the measurement models showed the acceptability of the measurement models for Islamic education, religious concepts, and medical ethics. Conclusions In addition to the content-related relationship with medical ethics, the Islamic education promotes ethics in the target community and has a direct impact on the education of medical ethics. Also, the explanation of religious concepts has a major impact on the promotion of the quality of medical ethics, since religious concepts, as students' subjective presuppositions, help them to better understand the content of medical ethics. By the evaluation of the research hypotheses, a direct relationship was observed between the education of Islamic education and promotion of medical ethics. Accordingly, a relationship between the religious concepts and the promotion of medical ethics was also confirmed. The course of Islamic education has a lower impact on medical ethics compared with that of religious concepts. The attention paid by the medical education system to the results of data analysis leads to an increase in the quality of Islamic education course offered to the students.