Ethics and professionalism: what does a resident need to learn?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Bioethics
• Professionalism in Medicine

Background:

• Ethics and professionalism training is crucial for residency education.
• Empirical data to guide the development of ethics curricula is limited.
• Need for evidence-based learning objectives for physician training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically derive and describe essential ethics and professionalism learning objectives.
• To identify commonalities and differences in training needs across medical specialties.
• To inform the creation of standardized ethics curricula for resident education.

Main Methods:

• Thematic analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups.
• Involved 84 participants (residents, program directors, faculty, physicians, ethics committees) from 13 specialties.
• Conducted in academic medical center, Veterans Administration, and community hospital settings.

Main Results:

• Commonly identified essential training topics: informed consent, interprofessional relationships, family interactions, communication skills, and end-of-life care.
• Non-physicians emphasized formal ethics instruction, resource allocation, and self-monitoring.
• Residents highlighted the importance of the learning environment and resident-attending interactions.

Conclusions:

• Empirically derived learning needs for ethics and professionalism are broad and applicable across specialties.
• Topics like informed consent and resource allocation are relevant for most specialties.
• Findings support the development of shared curricula and resources for ethics and professionalism training.