Ethical awareness among first year medical, dental and nursing students

Ethics is increasingly being included in the training curriculum for health-care professionals. However, debate continues around the appropriate content of ethics courses for such students and the most relevant teaching approaches which will enable students to apply their ethical knowledge in clinical settings. At a time when health-care professionals are starting to collaborate more closely in multidisciplinary teams, it is appropriate to explore the ethical values held by different groups of health professionals. This study sought to ascertain the ethical views and knowledge which medical, dental and nursing students have at the commencement of their training, to establish their opinions on the most important areas of ethical debate in contemporary health care and to examine their ethical reasoning in response to a series of vignettes. Students gave detailed answers to the questionnaire and the data they provided furnishes useful material for those designing and teaching ethics courses.