[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Mar-2003
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Heike Hemlin
heike.hemlin@cma.ca
613-731-8610 x2135
Canadian Medical Association Journal

Training the ethical doctor

Concerns are growing about ethics in medical practice, and they begin with the ethical grounding students receive at medical school. Although one would expect that maturation and involvement in university studies would result in improved moral reasoning, studies in the US have suggested that ethical skills actually deteriorate during medical training.

Johane Patenaude and colleagues questioned a cohort of Quebec students in the first and third years of medical school and found that the students' ethical skills levelled out over the course of their studies at a lower threshold of development than expected for their age group. In a related commentary, Peter Singer discusses ways to strengthen the role of ethics in medical education.

###

p. 852 Changes in students' moral development during medical school: a cohort study
— J. Patenaude et al
p. 854 Strengthening the role of ethics in medical education
— P.A. Singer


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

 


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.