Module for Interns in Medical Ethics: A Developmental Diegesis

BACKGROUND: Media report is rife with incidences of doctor-patients’ conflict, and this partly is due to communication gap and unethical practices being adopted by the doctors. Our regular curriculum fails to impart any training in ethical issues in patient care. Imparting training to students in these soft-skills is the need of the hour. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To develop a module for interns in medical ethics (MIME) in patient care, validate it and pilot run the module for standardization. METHODOLOGY: After conducting faculty development workshop in curriculum designing and three rounds of Delphi with alumni, a module in medical ethics was developed and peer validated. The questionnaire for pilot run, questionnaire for future use of module delivery and pre- and post-test were also peer validated. The module was delivered to 17 interns as pilot run in the form of 4 days’ workshop. After pilot run, the module was standardized to 10 broad topics and 3 days’ workshop. The questionnaire for future delivery of module in regular routine was also validated during pilot run. RESULTS: Twenty-five faculty members participated in 1 day faculty development workshop and 59 alumni completed three rounds of Delphi. After peer review by five experts, a module of 11 broad areas was developed and was pilot run on 17 interns. Based on the feedback from pilot run, a standardized, validated 18 h teaching MIME in patient care was developed. CONCLUSION: Pilot study proves that curriculum innovation in the form of medical ethics training to interns; when as undergraduate students, they actively participate in patient care under supervision will go a long way in inculcating soft skills like ethics, compassion and communication in them.