Medical ethics education: a professor of religion investigates

A study was carried out in a large teaching hospital to ascertain the current view of members of ten ward teams in regard to certain problems in the field of medical ethics. The investigator accompanied each team on their morning rounds and sat in on their discussions. At the end of each week he interviewed the faculty member, residents, intern, and medical students who comprised that team. Responses to these fifty open-ended interviews were grouped into categories that seemed natural to the data. These were tabulated and commented upon. The conclusions drawn were that there is an urgent need for ethical discourse in medical education, but that there are certain built-in difficulties in bringing this about in a significant way. Focus of attention upon critical incidents that come up in the normal cycle of ward rounds appeared to be the optimum approach to take.