Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the level of professional ethics awareness and medical ethics competency in order to assess the potential need for ethics items to be included on the Korean Dental Hygienist Licensing Examination.
Methods In total, 358 clinical dental hygienists and dental hygiene students completed a structured questionnaire to evaluate their level of ethical awareness and medical ethics competency. The sub-factors of medical ethics were classified into relationships with patients, medical and social relations, and individual specialized fields.
Results Only 32.1% of participants indicated that they had taken a course on professional ethics in the university curriculum, but 95.2% of respondents considered professional ethics to be important. The overall score for medical ethics competency was average (3.37 out of 5). The score for relationships with patients was 3.75 points, followed by medical and social relations (3.19 points) and individual specialized fields (3.16 points). The level of professional ethics awareness was higher among participants who had taken a course on professional ethics than among those who had not done so or who did not remember whether they had done so.
Conclusion Dental hygienists were aware of the importance of professional ethics, but their medical ethics competency was moderate. Therefore, medical ethics should be treated as a required subject in the university curriculum, and medical ethics competency evaluations should be strengthened by adding ethics items to the Korean Dental Hygienist Licensing Examination.
The purpose of this study was to examine the opinions of medical students and physician writers regarding the medical humanities as a subject and its inclusion in the medical school curriculum. Furthermore, we addressed whether an assessment test should be added to the National Medical Licensing Examination of Korea (KMLE). A total of 192 medical students at Inha University and 39 physician writers registered with the Korean Association of Physician Essayists and the Korean Association of Physician Poets participated in this study. They were asked to answer a series of questionnaires. Most medical students (59%) and all physician writers (100%) answered that the medical humanities should be included in the medical school curriculum to train good physicians. They thought that the KMLE did not currently include an assessment of the medical humanities (medical students 69%, physician writers 69%). Most physician writers (87%; Likert scale, 4.38 ± 0.78) felt that an assessment of the medical humanities should be included in the KMLE. Half of the medical students (51%; Likert scale, 2.51 ± 1.17) were against including it in the KMLE, which they would have to pass after several years of study. For the preferred field of assessment, medical ethics was the most commonly endorsed subject (medical students 59%, physician writers 39%). The most frequently preferred evaluation method was via an interview (medical students 45%, physician writers 33%). In terms of the assessment of the medical humanities and the addition of this subject to the KMLE, an interview-based evaluation should be developed.
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