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Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course
Medical schools universally accept the idea that bioethics courses are essential components of education, but few studies which measure outcomes (i.e., knowledge or retention) have demonstrated their educational value in the literature. The goal of this study was to examine whether core concepts of...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Bohn Stafleu van Loghum
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3540384/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23316464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40037-012-0014-3 |
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author | Fernandes, Ashley K. Borges, Nicole Rodabaugh, Heather |
author_facet | Fernandes, Ashley K. Borges, Nicole Rodabaugh, Heather |
author_sort | Fernandes, Ashley K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Medical schools universally accept the idea that bioethics courses are essential components of education, but few studies which measure outcomes (i.e., knowledge or retention) have demonstrated their educational value in the literature. The goal of this study was to examine whether core concepts of a pre-clinical bioethics course were learned and retained. Over the course of 2 years, a pre-test comprising 25 multiple-choice questions was administered to two classes (2008–2010) of first-year medical students prior to the start of a 15-week ethics course, and an identical post-test was administered at the end of the course. A total of 189 students participated. Paired t tests showed a significant difference between pre-test scores and post-test scores. The pre-test average score was 69.8 %, and the post-test average was 82.6 %, an increase of 12.9 % after the ethics course. The pre- and post-test results also suggested a shift in difficulty level of the questions, with students finding identical questions easier after the intervention. Given the increase in post-test scores after the 15-week intervention, the study suggests that core concepts in medical ethics were learned and retained. These results demonstrate that an introductory bioethics course can improve short-term outcomes in knowledge and comprehension, and should provide impetus to educators to demonstrate improved educational outcomes in ethics at higher levels of B.S. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3540384 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Bohn Stafleu van Loghum |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-35403842013-01-09 Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course Fernandes, Ashley K. Borges, Nicole Rodabaugh, Heather Perspect Med Educ Short Communication Medical schools universally accept the idea that bioethics courses are essential components of education, but few studies which measure outcomes (i.e., knowledge or retention) have demonstrated their educational value in the literature. The goal of this study was to examine whether core concepts of a pre-clinical bioethics course were learned and retained. Over the course of 2 years, a pre-test comprising 25 multiple-choice questions was administered to two classes (2008–2010) of first-year medical students prior to the start of a 15-week ethics course, and an identical post-test was administered at the end of the course. A total of 189 students participated. Paired t tests showed a significant difference between pre-test scores and post-test scores. The pre-test average score was 69.8 %, and the post-test average was 82.6 %, an increase of 12.9 % after the ethics course. The pre- and post-test results also suggested a shift in difficulty level of the questions, with students finding identical questions easier after the intervention. Given the increase in post-test scores after the 15-week intervention, the study suggests that core concepts in medical ethics were learned and retained. These results demonstrate that an introductory bioethics course can improve short-term outcomes in knowledge and comprehension, and should provide impetus to educators to demonstrate improved educational outcomes in ethics at higher levels of B.S. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. Bohn Stafleu van Loghum 2012-04-28 2012-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3540384/ /pubmed/23316464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40037-012-0014-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2012 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Short Communication Fernandes, Ashley K. Borges, Nicole Rodabaugh, Heather Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
title | Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
title_full | Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
title_fullStr | Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
title_full_unstemmed | Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
title_short | Measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
title_sort | measuring cognitive outcomes in a pre-clinical bioethics course |
topic | Short Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3540384/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23316464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40037-012-0014-3 |
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