The Teaching of Ethics and the Moral Competence of Medical and Nursing Students
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The Teaching of Ethics and the Moral Competence of Medical and Nursing Students Vera Sílvia Meireles Martins1 · Cristina Maria Nogueira Costa Santos1,2 · Patrícia Unger Raphael Bataglia3 · Ivone Maria Resende Figueiredo Duarte1,2 Accepted: 29 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract In a time marked by the development of innovative treatments in healthcare and the need for health professionals to deal with resulting ethical dilemmas in clinical practice, this study was developed to determine the influence of the bioethics teaching on the moral competence of medical and nursing students. The authors conduct a longitudinal study using the Moral Competence Test extended version before and after attending the ethics curricular unit, in three nursing schools and three medical schools of Portugal. In this questionnaire the participant is confronted with three ethical dilemmas (related to theft, euthanasia and the torture of a terrorist) and asked to evaluate arguments for and against the attitude of the main character (Worker, doctor and judge). For both nursing and medical students, C-score was lower after the attendance of the ethics curricular units, with a statistically significant decrease in the total score (from 21 to 19.5 on average; p = 0.046) for nursing students and a decrease not statistically significant for medical students (from 23.2 to 22 on average; p = 0.358). A multivariate analysis did not find any association between this decrease and gender, course, or age. The phenomenon of moral segmentation was observed, with better performance in the worker and judge dilemma, than in the doctor dilemma. These results highlight the need to reflect on the curricular strategies that can be implemented for health professionals to better develop moral competence and decision-making, allowing for the provision of humanized health care. Keywords Ethics education · Teaching · Moral development · Medical students · Nursing students
* Vera Sílvia Meireles Martins [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Health Care Analysis
Introduction In healthcare, innovative treatments are being developed, including new technologies that allow for improved treatment of diseases, which had been incurable and fatal. With an increased life expectancy and technological advances in medical care, health professionals must intervene in diverse situations. They are confronted daily with ethical dilemmas for which they must establish functional answers, as the life of the patient often depends on their response. The evolution in healthcare has led to a growing concern with the education of new health professionals and the curricular strategies implemented that allow the student and future professional to develop moral competence, safeguarding respect for the fundamental rights of those who are ill, thereby enabling them to improve their quality of life and dignity. Kohlberg [10: 425] defines moral judgment competence as “the capacity to make decisions and to judg
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