Table 2.

Students’ ideas about the goal of education in professionalism and medical ethics.

	Gender		Overall (N = 108)
(Cronbach’s α 0.922)	Female (N = 84) Mean±SD (range)	Male(N = 24) Mean±SD (range)	Male and female Mean±SD (range)
1. To become better people	7.60 ± 1.42	7.50 ± 1.38	7.58 ± 1.41
2. To better recognize ethical issues	7.69 ± 1.27	7.58 ± 1.32	7.66 ± 1.27
3. To develop interpersonal skills useful in resolving ethical conflicts	7.76 ± 1.25	7.50 ± 1.25	7.70 ± 1.25
4. To acquire a working knowledge of social science, philosophy, religion, and law as they apply to clinical care	7.63 ± 1.26*	6.71 ± 1.71	7.42 ± 1.41
5. To improve patient care and clinical decision making	7.93 ± 1.18	7.50 ± 1.45	7.83 ± 1.25
6. To prevent cynicism (negativity) and detachment in interactions with patients	7.57 ± 1.56	7.67 ± 1.27	7.59 ± 1.50
7. To better clarify values-laden (not objective; with personal bias) choices	7.54 ± 1.32*	6.88 ± 1.51	7.39 ± 1.39
8. To reduce the likelihood a physician may make a legal error in the future	7.88 ± 1.14*	6.79 ± 2.36	7.64 ± 1.56
9. To reduce the likelihood that a clinician will face a medical liability suit at some point during practice	7.80 ± 1.03*	6.71 ± 2.27	7.55 ± 1.47
10. To reduce the likelihood that a physician may make an ethical error in the future	7.77 ± 1.12	7.71 ± 1.43	7.76 ± 1.19
11. To learn how to heal our patients in addition to treating them	7.88 ± 1.24	7.63 ± 1.53	7.82 ± 1.31
Group means	7.73 ± .99	7.29 ± 1.11	7.63 ± 1.03

1. Rated on a scale from 1 = ‘much less’ to 5 = ‘same’ to 9 = ‘much more’ attention needed compared to now.

*Statistically significant difference between male and female, P < 0.05