Does this integrated law and ethics curriculum promote ethical thinking?

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Bioethics
• Legal Education

Background:

• The integration of ethics and law in dental curricula is evolving.
• Previous combined law and ethics models show varied success.
• Concerns exist regarding the assessment of ethical outcomes in dental education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the four-year combined ethics and law curriculum at Detroit Mercy, School of Dentistry.
• To identify potential areas for improvement in ethical outcome measurement.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of current ethical activity assessments.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of the Detroit Mercy curriculum.
• Review of existing literature on combined law and ethics education models.
• Critical assessment of ethical outcome measurement strategies.

Main Results:

• The curriculum integrates ethics and law over four years.
• Prior models indicate stronger performance in legal than ethical components.
• Current assessments may not adequately measure ethical reasoning or competence.

Conclusions:

• The Detroit Mercy curriculum offers a comprehensive approach.
• There is a need for explicit measures of ethical reasoning and outcomes.
• Novice ethical activities require further validation to demonstrate true competence.