| International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences |
| ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 9 (2013) pp. 198-203 |
| Perception of interns and postgraduates towards Medical Ethics Education |
| Kokila Selvaraj, P.Sivaprakasam, B.T. Sudhir Ben Nelson, G.H. Midhun Kumar |
| Department of Community Medicine, Meenakshi Medical College & Research Institute,Enathur, Kanchipuram 631 552, Tamil Nadu, India *Corresponding author e-mail: sudhirben@gmail.com |
| ABSTRACT |
| Medical ethics, though integral part of medical practice is not given due importance in medical course. Few legal aspects may be taught in the Forensic Medicine Department. Knowledge about ethics is essential for emerging doctors. The existence of unethical practice by health professionals like subjecting patients for unnecessary investigations and getting percentage of monetary benefit for sending the patients for CT scan and MRI etc has been observed and heard but not documented. So, this study focuses on knowledge and practice aspects of medical ethics among the prospective practitioners. Hence a study on perception of interns and postgraduates towards medical ethics education was carried out. It describes the present level of perception of interns and postgraduates towards medical ethics education. A Cross sectional study was done using a pretested questionnaire. Data collected from 60 (53.6%) postgraduates and 52 (46.4%) interns. Only 78(69.6%) of them said that medical ethics was discussed as a part of subject during their medicine course and 11(9.8%) had attended separate session on medical ethics during their medicine course. For the question on understanding of the term medical ethics 60 (53.6%) of them have not responded and 24(38.5%) respondents described medical ethics as principles, values, guidelines and rules to be followed in medical practice and 7(13.6%) of them described as doctor patient relationship. For the question on mentioning four bioethical principles 97(86.6%) not responded and 14 (12.8%) were able to tell more than one principle. Only49 (82%) of the Post Graduates have informed that they took Hippocratic Oath and only 39 (65%) of the post graduates were able to mention at least 2 or 3 points in the Hippocratic Oath. For the question on mentioning few ethical practices followed by them 52 (46%) not responded and others mentioned few practices like obtaining informed consent. For the question on mentioning unethical practices by others 61(54.5%) not responded and 51(45%) of them mentioned some of the unethical practices followed by others. In our study 108(96%) said that knowing medical ethics is important for practice and 100(89%) of them felt the need for a separate session on medical ethics for all health care providers. Medical ethics has to be discussed in detail along with the every subject during medicine course and it should be included in the final evaluation |
| Keywords |
| Medical ethics; Unethical practices; Knowledge; Hippocratic Oath. |