Medical Ethics Awareness Among Doctors at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences

Objectives This study aims to determine the level of medical ethics awareness among doctors working at a tertiary care hospital and the factors related to adequate awareness. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted over a period of three months at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad. The study used a complete enumeration approach to include all eligible doctors who met the inclusion criteria, i.e., house officers, medical officers, postgraduate trainees, and consultants. A structured questionnaire, originally developed as the Omani Physicians Bioethics and Medical Law Awareness Tool and subsequently adapted and used in a Pakistani healthcare setting, was used for data collection. The questionnaire assessed awareness of ethical dilemmas and specific issues in medical ethics. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York) was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and the associations between ethical awareness and the study variables were assessed using appropriate statistical tests. A p-value of less than 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results A total of 265 doctors participated in our study. Overall, 64.5% of the participants showed adequate ethical awareness. The mean score for awareness of ethical dilemmas was 9.6 ± 2.8 out of a maximum of 14, while the mean score for awareness of specific issues in medical ethics was 27.4 ± 5.6 out of 40. Significantly higher ethical awareness was observed among senior doctors and participants with prior ethics training, whereas no significant association was found between ethical awareness and gender. Conclusion Most doctors exhibited a satisfactory baseline of ethical awareness, yet critical vulnerabilities remain among junior cohorts and those without prior training. To bridge these gaps, medical institutions must implement continuous, structured, and case-based ethics training within undergraduate curricula and mandatory clinical rotations. Standardizing mandatory ethics modules prior to clinical residency is essential to build foundational moral resilience early in medical careers.