Medical students and clinical ethics

Bloch, Sidney

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05133.x

Topics

Teacher-clinicians are not always adequate role models

In 2000, the Australian Medical Council highlighted the place of clinical ethics in the education of medical students.1 A similar appreciation of its relevance has grown in the UK, North America and Europe.2-4 Recently, a working group of the Association of Teachers of Ethics and Law in Australian and New Zealand Medical Schools (ATEAM) produced a core curriculum for the subject5 that encompasses the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for students to appreciate the range and complexity of ethical issues permeating medicine and the moral principles required to deal with them.

Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Fitzroy, VIC.

Correspondence:

1. Australian Medical Council. Goals and objectives of basic medical education. Guidelines for assessment and accreditation of medical schools. Canberra: AMC, 2000.
2. Teaching medical ethics and law within medical education: a model for the UK core curriculum. J Med Ethics 1998; 24: 188-192.
3. Jennett PA, Crelinsten GL, Kinsella TD. Advanced training in biomedical ethics: a curriculum in clinical specialty programmes. Med Educ 1993; 27: 484-488.
4. Holm S, Nielsen EH, Norup M, et al. Changes in moral measuring and the teaching of medical ethics. Med Educ 1995; 29: 420-423.
5. Braunack-Mayer AJ, Gillam LH, Vance EF, et al. An ethics core curriculum for Australasian medical schools. Med J Aust 2001; 175: 205-210. <MJA full text>
6. Hicks LK, Lin Y, Robertson DW, et al. Understanding the clinical dilemmas that shape medical students' ethical development: questionnaire survey and focus group study. BMJ 2001; 322: 709-710.
7. Dwyer J. Primum non tacere: An ethics of speaking up. Hastings Cent Rep 1994; 24: 13-18.
8. Morreim EH. Am I my brother's warden? Responding to the unethical or incompetent colleague. Hastings Cent Rep 1993; 23: 19-27.
9. Kushner TK, Thomasma DC, editors. Ward ethics. Dilemmas for medical students and doctors in training. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
10. "Draft" code of ethics, 2002. Australian Medical Students' Association. Previously available at: http://www.amsa.org.au/flash/about/publication/document/misc/policy/AMSA_ethics.PDF (accessed Nov 2002 - Code of Ethics now available at http://www.amsa.org.au/docs/ED/AMSA%20Code%20of%20Ethics.pdf, Dec 2005).
11. Paice E, Heard S, Moss F. How important are models in making good doctors? BMJ 2002; 325: 707-710.

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