In the past 30 years, medical ethics education has emerged as a high-priority subject in Korea. This article provides a general overview of medical ethics education in the medical school curriculum. The author supports the idea that the goal of medical ethics education should be to equip physicians with a knowledge base for analyzing and resolving ethical dilemmas as a core element of the profession. The core elements already have been delineated by the textbook of medical ethics that is in use, and can be applied in contexts including theoretical work, specific areas of application, and problematic clinical cases. This field requires a multidisciplinary approach and should be integrated throughout the entire curriculum of medical school. Ethical theory and knowledge-based approaches should be studied as a basic course, and case studies and ethical debates should incorporated into applied clinical training courses. The grade system is suitable for the knowledge-based approach, while pass-fail evaluations are suitable for small-group discussions of case studies. A team-based approach including both ethicists specializing in philosophy and physicians would be helpful in teaching medical ethics. Progress in ethics education may depend on medical schools to invest in faculty development and to allocate resources accordingly. Ethics education should be treated as a course in professionalism, and should also be incorporated into continuing medical education programs after graduation from medical school.
Curriculum* ; Education* ; Education, Medical, Continuing ; Ethical Theory ; Ethicists ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical* ; Humans ; Knowledge Bases ; Korea ; Philosophy ; Professionalism ; Schools, Medical*

PURPOSE: This study investigated medical students' attitudes toward academic misconduct that occurs in the learning environment during the pre-clinical and clinical periods. METHODS: Third-year medical students from seven medical schools were invited to participate in this study. A total of 337 of the 557 (60.5%) students completed an inventory assessing their attitudes toward academic misconduct. The inventory covered seven factors: scientific misconduct (eight items), irresponsibility in class (six items), disrespectful behavior in patient care (five items), dishonesty in clerkship tasks (four items), free riding on group assignments (four items), irresponsibility during clerkship (two items), and cheating on examinations (one item). RESULTS: Medical students showed a strict attitude toward academic misconduct such as cheating on examinations and disrespectful behavior in patient care, but they showed a less rigorous attitude toward dishonesty in clerkship tasks and irresponsibility in class. There was no difference in students' attitudes toward unprofessional behaviors by gender. The graduate medical school students showed a stricter attitude toward some factors of academic misconduct than the medical college students. This difference was significant for irresponsibility in class, disrespectful behavior in patient care, and free riding on group assignments. CONCLUSION: This study indicates a critical vulnerability in medical students' professionalism toward academic integrity and responsibility. Further study evidence is needed to confirm whether this professionalism lapse is confined only to this population or is pervasive in other medical schools as well.
Ethics ; Humans ; Learning ; Patient Care ; Professional Misconduct ; Professionalism ; Schools, Medical ; Scientific Misconduct ; Students, Medical

PURPOSE: Professional nursing ethics is a living, dynamic set of standards for nurses'professional moral behavior. Furthermore, in daily clinical nursing training, nursing students are constantly confronted with decisionmaking that is moral in nature. The aim of this study was to identify the perceived ethical attitudes in the clinical training process of senior nursing students using Q-methodology to offer basic strategies for nursing ethics education and thereby improve patients'care. METHODS: Q-methodology provides a scientific method for identifying perception structures that exist within certain individuals or groups. Thirty-seven participants in a university rated 38 selected Q-statements on a scale of 1-9. The collected data were analyzed using pc-QUNAL software. RESULTS: Principal component analysis identified 3 types of ethical attitudes in nursing students in Korea. The categories were labeled Sacred-life, Science-realistic and Humane-life. Sacred-life individuals think that a life belongs to an absolute power (God), not a man, and a human life is a high and noble thing. Science-realistic individuals disagreed that allowing an induced abortion or embryo (human) duplication is unethical behavior that provokes a trend, which takes the value of a life lightly; most of them took a utilitarian position with respect to ethical decisions. Humane-life individuals exhibit a tendency toward human-centered thought with respect to ethical attitudes. CONCLUSION: This study will be of interest to educators of students of nursing and hospital nursing administrators. Also, the findings may provide the basis for the development of more appropriate strategies to improve nursing ethics education programs.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Analysis of Variance ; *Attitude of Health Personnel/ethnology ; Clinical Competence/standards ; Decision Making ; *Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate/ethics/standards ; *Ethics, Nursing/education ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humanism ; Humans ; Interprofessional Relations/ethics ; Korea ; Morals ; Needs Assessment ; Nursing Methodology Research/methods ; Patient Rights/ethics ; Philosophy, Nursing ; *Q-Sort ; Religion and Psychology ; Students, Nursing/*psychology ; Value of Life

Otologists and audiologists care for patients and conduct clinical research to find more effective treatments that benefit patients. Institutional Review Board (IRB) permission is necessary for conducting clinical trials on humans. Furthermore, many bioethical conflicts are encountered while conducting research. However, few otologists and audiologists in Korea know bioethics and the principles and regulations of IRBs in detail. This paper reviews the history of ethics in clinical research and current bioethical principles and IRB regulations. We outline what you need as otologists or audiologists to get IRB approval while considering the principles of bioethics.
Bioethical Issues ; Bioethics ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Humans ; Korea ; Social Control, Formal

Physicians ; Professional Misconduct ; Professionalism ; education

No abstract available.
Bioethical Issues ; Curriculum* ; Education, Medical* ; Ethics, Medical* ; Human ; Internationality ; United States

The Korean medical establishment has traditionally shown little concern for formal training in medical ethics; only recently have courses in medical ethics been included in the curricula of Korea's medical schools. The importance and effectiveness of such courses is still a matter of some debate. This study attempted to measure the effects of a course in medical ethics on senior medical students. For this study, a discussion based course was designed, which made considerable use of video-taped ethical situations. Students were requested to answer a series of ethics related questions both before and after taking the course. Prior to taking the course, students indicated that treatment refusal, abortion, sex pre-selection, and euthanasia are the most important ethical issues in contemporary medical practice in Korea. However, after taking the course, students modified this list slightly by replacing the issue of euthanasia with that of equal access to health care resources. No significant changes were observed in students' value systems. The students' response to the course was favorable.
Curriculum ; Ethical Theory ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical* ; Euthanasia ; Health Services Accessibility ; Humans ; Korea ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical* ; Treatment Refusal

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study was to find aesthetical-ethical paradigm of care ethics by understanding the unique moral character of care as an art and to suggest the optimal direction of nursing ethics. METHOD: This study used meaning-heuristic and -interpretive methods of hermeneutics based on philosophical aesthetic theory; Baumgarten's aesthetics, Schiller's theory of aesthetical education and Kant's theory of aesthetical judgement. RESULT: The concept of care implied aesthetical and ethical character; caring as an art was related to moral feeling based on human dignity und emotional communication in interpersonal-relationship. Caring as an art was interpreted as a moral ideal for the promotion of the humanity und the interaction in personal-relationship according to nursing theories. Philosophical aesthetics could provide the theoretical base for the interpretation of caring as an art. The proper paradigm of care ethics in nursing could be found in character-trait ethics and communication ethics according to the philosophical aesthetics. CONCLUSION: This study could show aesthetical-ethical paradigm of care ethics in nursing by the heuristic interpretation of caring as an art according to the philosophical aesthetics.
Education ; Esthetics ; Ethics* ; Ethics, Nursing ; Humans ; Nursing Theory ; Nursing* ; Personhood

PURPOSE: This study was done to analyze nursing students' attitudes to life-sustaining treatment by measuring their awareness of biomedical ethics and resulting attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. METHODS: This study was a descriptive research to assess the level of nursing students' awareness of biomedical ethics, attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, and correlations between these variables. After the nursing students signed a consent form they were assessed. Data collection was done from September 1 to October 25, 2016, and analyzed using SPSS 23.0 WIM Program. RESULTS: There was a negative correlation and significant difference between nursing students' awareness of biomedical ethics and attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. There was a significant correlation among attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and medical ethics, mortality ethics. CONCLUSION: The findings in the study indicate that it is necessary to provide nursing students with easy access to continuous education to help them establish an acceptable view of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.
Bioethics* ; Consent Forms ; Data Collection ; Education ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical ; Humans ; Life Support Care ; Mortality ; Nursing* ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the differences of the Code of Ethics, level of application of the Code of Ethics and consciousness of biomedical ethics of nurses about clinical practice experience, ethical values and biomedical ethics education experience of nursing students. METHODS: A descriptive research design, t-test and one-way ANOVA were used. The data were collected 1st June to 31st August 2016 from two large cities. The participants were 246 nursing students with a mean age of 22.57 years. Among them, 209 (84.6%) were female, 94 (38.2%) had clinical practice experience, 155 (63.0%) listed their ethical value as different depending on the situation, and 127 (51.6%) had biomedical ethics education experience. RESULTS: The scores were: awareness of the Code of Ethics of Nurses 4.29±0.60; application of the Code of Ethics of Nurses 4.24±0.64; and consciousness of biomedical ethics 2.91±0.19. There were significant differences in application of the Code of Ethics of Nurses (t=−1.97, p=.050); consciousness of biomedical ethics (t=−2.25, p=.025) related to clinical practice experience; and consciousness of biomedical ethics related to biomedical education experience (t=2.67, p=.007). CONCLUSION: Clinical practice and biomedical ethics education experience contributed to enhance the level of application of the Code of Ethics of Nurses and consciousness of biomedical ethics of nursing students.
Bioethics* ; Codes of Ethics* ; Consciousness* ; Education* ; Ethics ; Ethics, Nursing* ; Female ; Humans ; Nursing* ; Research Design ; Students, Nursing