The development of a brief and objective method for evaluating moral sensitivity and reasoning in medical students

BMC Medical Ethics

Akiko Yamagishi³  Tadashi Nishimura⁴  Ichiro Kai¹  Brian T Slingsby²  Akira Akabayashi² 

[1] Department of Social Gerontology, School of Health Science and Nursing, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan;Department of Biomedical Ethics, School of Public Health, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan;Juntendo Medical College of Nursing, 2-2 Takasu, Urayasu-shi, Chiba 279-0023, Japan;Department of Biomedical Ethics, School of Health Science and Nursing, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

关键词: moral sensitivity;    DIT;    Japan;    questionnaire;    education;    Medical ethics;   

Others  :  1092125
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6939-5-1

 received in 2003-11-26, accepted in 2004-01-29,  发布年份 2004

【 摘 要 】

Background

Most medical schools in Japan have incorporated mandatory courses on medical ethics. To this date, however, there is no established means of evaluating medical ethics education in Japan. This study looks 1) To develop a brief, objective method of evaluation for moral sensitivity and reasoning; 2) To conduct a test battery for the PIT and the DIT on medical students who are either currently in school or who have recently graduated (residents); 3) To investigate changes in moral sensitivity and reasoning between school years among medical students and residents.

Methods

Questionnaire survey: Two questionnaires were employed, the Problem Identification Test (PIT) for evaluation of moral sensitivity and a portion of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) for moral reasoning. Subjects consisted of 559 medical school students and 272 residents who recently graduated from the same medical school located in an urban area of Japan.

Results

PIT results showed an increase in moral sensitivity in 4^th and 5^th year students followed by a decrease in 6^th year students and in residents. No change in moral development stage was observed. However, DIT results described a gradual rising shift in moral decision-making concerning euthanasia between school years. No valid correlation was observed between PIT and DIT questionnaires.

Conclusion

This study's questionnaire survey, which incorporates both PIT and DIT, could be used as a brief and objective means of evaluating medical students' moral sensitivity and reasoning in Japan.

【 授权许可】

   
2004 Akabayashi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

【 图 表 】

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