Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Canadian Family Physician logoLink to Canadian Family Physician
. 1994 Jul;40:1292–1298.

How an ethics workshop for preceptors affects medical students.

B K Hennen 1, J Morrissy 1, A Grindrod 1
PMCID: PMC2380146  PMID: 8086844

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a workshop on medical ethics attended by family medicine preceptors would affect their students' learning of ethics, and what educational and experiential factors affected the students' learning about ethics. DESIGN: A 3-hour workshop planned by a group of family physicians and ethicists and taught by a faculty member and an ethicist was offered to family physician preceptors. Students entering the clerkship were invited by letter to complete written answers to two clinical papers. Their answers were compared with "ideal" answers based on a weighted composite of the responses of 12 family physicians with a particular interest in ethics. The scores of students assigned to preceptors who had been offered the workshop were compared with those of students assigned to a control group of preceptors. Clerks were also asked about influences on their answers. PARTICIPANTS: The 86 preceptors participating in the family medicine programs at the University of Western Ontario, divided by random selection within geographic clustering into an experimental group of 50 and a control group of 36. Preceptors offered the workshop were considered to be in the experimental group whether or not they attended. The student questionnaire was sent to all students entering the family medicine clerkship program in the academic year 1989-1990 and some in the following year, until sufficient responses were received. Responses were analyzed from 32 clerks in the experimental group and 36 in the control group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Performance of students whose preceptors were invited to the workshop against performance of students whose preceptors were not invited to the workshop. RESULTS: No significant differences were noted between the performance of students whose preceptors were offered the workshop and those whose preceptors were not. CONCLUSION: The single outcome measure and the volunteer bias make conclusions difficult to draw. Further studies varying interventions and outcome measures are warranted.

Full text

PDF
1292

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beazley G. G. Canadian undergraduate medical education: family physician involvement. CMAJ. 1987 Mar 1;136(5):477–480. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Canadian Medical Association Code of ethics: CMA policy summary. CMAJ. 1987 Oct 15;137(8):760A–760D. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Canadian Nurses Association. Canadian Medical Association. Canadian Hospital Association Joint statement on terminal illness. Can Med Assoc J. 1984 May 15;130(10):1357–1358. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dayringer R., Paiva R. E., Davidson G. W. Ethical decision making by family physicians. J Fam Pract. 1983 Aug;17(2):267–272. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Delaney B., Kean L. Attitudes of medical students to the teaching of medical ethics. Med Educ. 1988 Jan;22(1):8–10. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1988.tb00401.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dickman R. L. Family medicine and medical ethics--a natural and necessary union. J Fam Pract. 1980 Apr;10(4):633–637. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Donner A. Statistical methodology for paired cluster designs. Am J Epidemiol. 1987 Nov;126(5):972–979. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114735. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hayward R. S., Honer W. G. Student-directed teaching of medical ethics at a Canadian medical school. J Med Educ. 1985 May;60(5):384–389. doi: 10.1097/00001888-198505000-00005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Howe K. R. Medical students' evaluations of different levels of medical ethics teaching: implications for curricula. Med Educ. 1987 Jul;21(4):340–349. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1987.tb00373.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hundert E. M. A model for ethical problem solving in medicine, with practical applications. Am J Psychiatry. 1987 Jul;144(7):839–846. doi: 10.1176/ajp.144.7.839. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jewell M. D. Teaching medical ethics. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1984 Aug 11;289(6441):364–365. doi: 10.1136/bmj.289.6441.364. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Miles S. H., Lane L. W., Bickel J., Walker R. M., Cassel C. K. Medical ethics education: coming of age. Acad Med. 1989 Dec;64(12):705–714. doi: 10.1097/00001888-198912000-00004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Olukoya A. A. Attitudes of medical students to medical ethics in their curriculum. Med Educ. 1983 Mar;17(2):83–86. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1983.tb01104.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pellegrino E. D., Hart R. J., Jr, Henderson S. R., Loeb S. E., Edwards G. Relevance and utility of courses in medical ethics. A survey of physicians' perceptions. JAMA. 1985 Jan 4;253(1):49–53. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Thung P. J. Introducing medical students to ethical issues. Med Educ. 1981 Mar;15(2):79–84. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1981.tb02401.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tiberius R. G., Cleave-Hogg D. A data base for curriculum design in medical ethics. J Med Educ. 1984 Jun;59(6):512–513. doi: 10.1097/00001888-198406000-00009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Canadian Family Physician are provided here courtesy of College of Family Physicians of Canada

RESOURCES