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UME-21 and teaching ethics: a step in the right direction
Linda Orkin Lewin1, Curtis A Olson, Kenneth W Goodman
1Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University, USA. lol@po.cwru.edu
Family Medicine
|February 13, 2004
Summary
Medical schools need clearer ethics curriculum objectives and methods to teach medical ethics, including managed care dilemmas. This study proposes standards to evaluate current medical ethics education and offers recommendations for improvement.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Bioethics
- Curriculum Development
Background:
- Medical schools face challenges in teaching ethics, particularly concerning managed care.
- Existing ethics education objectives are often vague.
- There's a need for standardized approaches to medical ethics curricula.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose standards for evaluating medical ethics education.
- To analyze the ethics content within Undergraduate Medical Education for the 21st Century (UME-21) curricula.
- To identify strengths and weaknesses in current medical ethics teaching.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of progress and final reports from participating medical schools.
- Evaluation using principles of adult learning and Rest's Four Component Model of Moral Development.
- Description of exemplary curricular elements.
Main Results:
- Significant variation in ethics curricula among schools.
- Generalities in stated goals and objectives.
- Diverse and innovative teaching methods were employed.
- Ethics content varied in its focus on managed care.
- Student surveys were common evaluation tools, but direct learning assessment was less frequent.
- Rest's Four Component Model was not fully integrated.
Conclusions:
- Recommendations for ideal objectives, teaching methods, content, and evaluation in medical ethics education.
- Emphasis on addressing managed care ethics more effectively.
- Need for more robust evaluation strategies to assess student learning.
Keywords:
Bioethics and Professional Ethics