Related Experiment Videos
[The development of ethics. Identifying what training in medical ethics is needed by family physicians]
H Marcoux1, C Lamontagne, S Cayer
1Département de médecine familiale, Faculté de médecine, bureau 1323, pavillon Vandry, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, QC G1K 7P4. hubert.marcoux@mfa.ulaval.ca
Objective:
To identify what training in medical ethics physician teachers need.
Design:
Qualitative research study using a modified nominal group technique.
Setting:
Family practice units affiliated with the Department of Family Medicine at Laval University in Quebec.
Participants:
Fifty-three physician teachers in six family practice units.
Method:
During seven meetings, the teachers shared information on clinical situations that had posed ethical problems. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin's method.
Main Outcome Findings:
The 277 clinical situations were classified under nine themes: ethics; confidentiality; consent, refusal of treatment, and the right to information; level of care and abstention from and cessation of treatment; relationships with pharmaceutical companies and the ethics of research; ethics of teaching; allocation of resources; influence of third parties; and euthanasia and assisted suicide. Learning objectives were developed.
Conclusion:
This research forms the basis of the ethics curriculum in the family medicine residency program at Laval University. It also offers a strategy for integrating ethics into daily teaching activities because the learning objectives derive directly from the concerns of the teaching faculty.