Ethical decision making in dental education: a preliminary study

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Bioethics
• Medical Ethics Education

Background:

• Ethical decision-making in clinical cases can be analyzed using four topics: medical indications, patient preferences, quality of life, and contextual features.
• Assessing ethical decision-making skills is vital in dental education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a dedicated ethics course on the ethical decision-making performance of fourth-year dental students.
• To compare student performance before and after the ethics intervention.

Main Methods:

• Fourth-year dental students (n=37) attended a 3-hour lecture on the four-topic approach to ethical case analysis.
• Student performance was assessed via a case scenario before and after the lecture, evaluating the four topics and ethical judgment.
• Statistical analysis was performed using a significance level of p < 0.05.

Main Results:

• A statistically significant improvement was observed in the application of the four topics in ethical case analysis (p < 0.05).
• The mean total scores of students significantly increased after the ethics course (from 54.4 to 67.5, p < 0.05).
• No significant difference was found in the mean scores for ethical judgment (p > 0.05).

Conclusions:

• The ethics course positively impacted students' ability to analyze ethical dilemmas using the four-topic framework.
• Further integration of ethics lectures into the dental curriculum is recommended to enhance student awareness and achieve educational objectives.
• Improving ethical decision-making skills is essential for competent dental practice.