Ethics Education in Medical Sciences; A National Descriptive Survey

Background: Historically, teaching medical ethics was always an important educational objective; however, the educational strategies to fulfill this goal varied in different times and areas. In the past two decades, teaching ethics has become an important part of the core curriculum of medical sciences in IRAN; however, ethics is relatively a newcomer to the undergraduate curriculum of medical sciences. This study aimed to evaluate the current status of teaching ethics in medical sciences in Iran. Methods: This descriptive survey was quantitatively conducted in two phases; evaluation of the curricula and syllabus of all undergraduate programs and surveying medical ethics teaching in all medical universities and/or schools using a questionnaire. The course title, content, hours (units), the recommended references, the teaching and students’ assessment methods, and the information of ethics teachers were reviewed and analyzed. Results: The study showed some features about the current status of ethics teaching in medical sciences, including 1) no incorporation of ethics in 10 BS and MSc curricula; 2) different course titles, course contents and course units in similar programs; 3) non-adherence to the curriculum in terms of the core content, the references, and teaching and assessment methods; 4) non-adherence to the ethics core content especially in medical, dentistry, and pharmacy schools; 5) lack of qualified ethics teachers; and 6) no horizontal or vertical integration in ethics teaching. Conclusion: Taken together, to overcome shortcomings in teaching ethics, the authors suggest a four-phase approach for strengthening and reforming ethics education in medical sciences including determining the core content for ethics teaching by experts consensus, revising curricula in all undergraduate programs of medical sciences, training ethics teachers, and amending infrastructures for teaching ethics.