Development and Introduction of Module on Medical Ethics in Patient Care To 2nd Professional MBBS Students

ABSTRACT

Background: There is complete absence of teaching of ethicsas a part of medical curriculum. There is now an urgent need toteach ethics to medical graduates in India because ofincreasing incidence of disconnect between doctors andpatients leading to allegations like unethical treatment practicesby doctors and use of force by patients and relatives againstdoctors. Medical Council of India (MCI) has also realized theurgency to impart the training of ethics to medical graduates inIndia as described in its Vision-2015 document.Aim and Objectives: To develop a module on “Medical Ethicsin patient care” and to assess its feasibility.Methodology: The study was conducted in the Department ofPharmacology, Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital,Punjab from the period of March 2017 to December, 2017 afterIEC approval. The topics to be covered in the module forteaching “Medical ethics in patient care” were finalized throughFocus Group Discussions (FGDs) with the core faculty and themembers of Medical Education Unit (MEU). A module forteaching Medical ethics in patient care was developed. Modulewas of 10 hours’ duration and involved interactive lectures,PowerPoint presentations, case-based learning as the mostcommon teaching-learning methods. Along with the module,pre-post-test questionnaire to assess the improvement in theknowledge of students was developed and validated.Feedback questionnaires, based on 5-point-Likert scale, weredeveloped and validated to know the students’ perceptionregarding the teaching of medical ethics and faculty’sperception on the effectiveness of the module. A pilot run of themodule was conducted on 15 students of 2nd Prof MBBS todetermine the feasibility of the module. Pre-post-testquestionnaires were administered to the students and thefeedback taken from the students and the participating faculty.Findings: A module on medical ethics on patient care wasdeveloped and validated. There was significant improvement inknowledge of the students as evident from their pre and posttest scores (10.47 to 25.47). The improvement in knowledge ofvarious aspects of medical ethics was also calculated. Therewas a statistically significant improvement in knowledge in allsessions. The observations of the qualitative data analyzedfrom the feedback given by the students revealed that theyfound it useful and relevant and would implement theknowledge gained.Conclusions: The feedback of the students and the facultywas very positive and encouraging. The development of thismodule would help in teaching the 2nd Prof students in medicalethics, which would be helpful to them in clinics and life-long.The seed of medical ethics would help grow a tree of gooddoctor-patient relationship which would ultimately help to growhealth of the society.