Effectiveness of formal training in bioethics of 3(rd) semester undergraduate medical students in recognizing bioethical issues and principles in patient care

INTRODUCTION: Despite well-described code of conduct for physician the recent increase in litigation against doctors is an issue of concern which says that doctors and health professionals are confronted with many ethical problems regularly. The aim of the present study was to see the ability to recognize different bioethical issues in relation to patient care among 3(rd) semester undergraduate students and also the change in the pattern of recognition of bioethical issues after formal training. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out using self-administered questionnaire among the fifty 3(rd) semester undergraduate MBBS students. Each question was designed in a “Likert scale” pattern carrying a minimum score of 1 (1 = strongly disagree) and maximum score of 5 (5 = strongly agree). After 6 months of training and bedside clinical exposure, students were assessed again with same set of questionnaire. The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 17.0. RESULTS: All of the respondents in the study group were of the opinion that medical ethics is very important but only 24% aware about existence of ethics committee in the institute. Changes has been observed after clinical exposure in response like disclosure of patient's condition to close relatives (agreed 54% versus 84% pre and postexposure, respectively) and discussion of related ethical issues with clinical case discussion (agreed 74% versus 94% pre and postexposure, respectively). Some of the issues needs further clarification even after clinical exposure like doctors must not refuse to do abortion (56% disagreed and 38% agreed), consent regarding treatment in children (60% disagreed and 32% agreed), and uses of branded versus generic drugs (76% generic and 26% branded). CONCLUSION: There is a need to stress the importance of ethical practice in the undergraduate curriculum to make the doctors confident enough to deal the ethical dilemma for themselves and better professional efficiency.