Medical Students’ and Interns’ Attitudes toward Medical Ethics Education in a Thai Medical School

Abstract

Background: Medical ethics has been accepted as part of every accredited medical curriculum for the past 40 years. Medical students’ attitudes have an important role for development and improvement of the curriculum. Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital is the oldest and largest medical school in Thailand, and has been teaching medical ethics since 1907. Objective: To determine attitudes among medical students and interns toward medical ethics education and understand the factors influencing their attitudes. Methods: Mixed quantitative and qualitative research was conducted with early 6th year medical students and interns. A questionnaire was adapted from previous studies and included some original items. Results: Of the 550 questionnaires distributed, 386 were returned (70.2% response rate). Males (n=180) made up 46.63 % of the sample. Interns (n=219, 56.74 %) tended to have more positive attitudes toward ethics learning than did medical students (n = 167, 43.26 %). Male participants tended to agree more with negative statements about ethics learning than did females. There was no statistically significant effect of hometown (Bangkok versus elsewhere) or grade point average on attitudes. The main problem cited with medical ethics education was lack of engaging methods. Conclusion: Because clinical experience has an effect on learners’ attitudes towards ethics education, medical ethics should be taught at the appropriate time and with proper techniques, such as drawing explicit ties between ethical principles and real-life situations. Attention to the more detailed aspects of these data should also facilitate improvements to curriculum content, thereby ensuring better educational outcomes. Keywords: Medical ethics, medical students attitude, medical education, medical school