Ethics ; Nursing

Cervical cancer during pregnancy poses a rare and complex clinical and ethical challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries such as the Philippines. The dual obligation to preserve maternal life while protecting fetal viability requires a nuanced balance between medical science, ethics, and cultural values.This commentary explores the ethical implications of treating cervical cancer in pregnancy using Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) at reduced standard radiation volumes, highlighting how medical innovation intersects with the principles of biomedical ethics.

Clinical practice of Medical Genetics involves application of various genetic techniques for the diagnosis of genetic disorders and subsequent genetic counseling and treatment. The principles of Medical Ethics must be fully taken into account when applying genetic knowledge for medical practice. Medical Ethics education is therefore essential for the standardized training of resident doctors in medical genetics department. With a basic system of Medical Genetics Physician Training established, our hospital has made a preliminary exploration for the development of Medical Ethics teaching in resident training through various teaching practices including seminar, network teaching, case study, scene teaching and outpatient teaching, with an aim to strengthen Medical Ethnics knowledge, professionalism and communication skills, and implement Medical Ethics principles throughout clinical practice.
Curriculum ; Educational Status ; Ethics, Medical ; Genetics, Medical ; Humans

Altruism ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; Delivery of Health Care/ethics* ; Empathy ; Ethics, Medical ; Global Health ; Humans ; International Cooperation ; Physicians ; World Health Organization

Background: Social media is a common channel for communication, information and education. However, it is also a potential forum where lapses of professionalism may occur. In this study we aimed to elicit medical students’ perspective on social media practices and their perceived implications of social media posts. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of Semesters 1 and 9 medical students from the International Medical University (IMU). A score was created consisting of the sum of the Likert scale in the 10-item social media practices questionnaire. Categorical variables were compared using chi-square test, while continuous variables that were not normally distributed were compared using Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Out of 118 respondents (61% females), 54.2% of them recalled previous instructions regarding the use of social media and 55.1% of them were familiar with the IMU Social Media Guidelines. In general, respondents showed high level of awareness of inappropriate social medial practices, with statistically better awareness among Semester 1 students. Students who reported familiarity with IMU Social Media Guidelines were more aware of inappropriate social media practices. Most respondents were aware of the potential adverse impact of social media posts. Conclusion IMU students who participated in our survey generally had a good grasp of what constitutes inappropriate behaviour on social media and its potential future impact. Lower level of awareness of inappropriate social media practices among the Semester 9 students points to the need for periodic reminders of IMU Social Media Guidelines.
Students, Medical ; Social Media ; Professionalism ; Ethics, Medical

In this paper, I reflect on caring and witnessing through engaged ethnography of an urban poor community during the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. The urban poor are individuals and families who live below the poverty line in metropolitan areas, many of whom have little or no political voice and are insufficiently protected by social networks and other institutions. In March 2020, the government placed Metro Manila under Enhanced Community Quarantine to control the spread of COVID19. This left many an urban poor community in Metro Manila to struggle even more against an already precarious existence. By standard, nurses render different levels of care for urban poor clients in almost all health care settings. In public health nursing, we come in close contact to the realities of our clients when we see them in health centers, in the community, or whenever we do our home visits. Now, caring for vulnerable and marginalized groups such as the urban poor has changed due to minimum public health standards of wearing masks, physical distancing, handwashing, and enforcement of lockdowns. As a nurse, an academic, and as a student of anthropology, I came up for self-review while doing an article for a popular social news network derived from a virtually engaged ethnography. While this novel method requires you to see the world through the eyes of the “other,” and generates bioethical dialogue and awareness of personal biases in addressing ethical considerations and challenges, it gives voice and fulfills our roles as client advocates. In May 2020, the article was published with the urban poor organization and its partners as my coauthors. I borrowed from anthropology to arrive at a greater understanding of the socio-cultural effects and political implications of COVID19 to one of the most vulnerable nursing clientele – the urban poor.
Public Health Nursing ; Ethics, Research ; COVID-19

The undergraduate dental degree in Malaysia is regulated by the Malaysian Dental Council (MDC) (Standard of Undergraduate Competencies), Code of Professional Conduct of the Malaysian Dental Council, the Malaysian Qualification Framework 2.0 and the Malaysian Quality Agency (MQA) quality assurance documents. These primary documents emphasize the importance of professional ethics and law in dentistry as will be further detailed and discussed later. This study reflects on the need to integrate ethics, professionalism and law with sufficient coverage in terms of content and emphasis in the dental undergraduate curriculum. Literature and benchmarking practices are reviewed for a deeper reflection of the current needs in a professional dental ethics and law education course. The present study is primarily focused on regulatory requirements, legal cases and comparative literature to serve as a reference on how professional ethics and law courses may be conducted. As an incidental measure, a reflection as to how the course of study of professional ethics is delivered in a local university is considered in a selected local university’s undergraduate dental curriculum. The findings indicate that ethics professionalism and dental law is not given sufficient emphasis as it is included as one of the minor components within another overcrowded subject and the coverage of what is taught is limited in context. This paper is an invitation to all dental schools to review and reflect whether, given the emphasis on professional ethics, legal and regulatory compliance in the regulatory documents, it is adequately reflected in their dental curriculum. In this regard, some benchmarking references are done to suggest what such a course should cover, for consideration of the dental schools.
Ethics, Dental

This study was aimed to examinate the effectiveness of the application of a medical ethics class model at 2014 and 2016 for the improvement of students' problem solving ability (PSA) in a medical school. The PSA of medical students was relatively higher than that of regular adults and college students. There were not significant differences of PSA between male and female medical students (pre-medical ethics class: t= 0.29 p= 0.78; post-medical ethics class: t= 1.09, p= 0.29). The significant improvements of students' PSA were remarkable after the application of the medical ethics class model (at 2014: t= 3.29, p < 0.01, at 2016: t= 7.05, p < 0.01). In 2016, all five lower level competencies of PSA such as ‘clarification problem’ ‘cause analysis’, ‘developing alternatives’, ‘running the plan’ and ‘assessing performance’ were significantly improved. In 2014, however, ‘cause analysis’, ‘developing alternatives’ and ‘running the plan’ of five lower level competencies of PSA were significantly improved. There were significant improvements of PSA after the medical ethics class model in both the higher PSA group (p < 0.01) and the lower PSA group (p < 0.01) in 2016. However, there was significant improvement of PSA after the medical ethics class in the lower PSA group only in 2014 (p < 0.01). This difference is be due to the grouping ways of discussion teams. The discussion teams of 2016 were homogeneously composed of the higher PSA students only or of the lower PSA students only, comparing to the discussion teams of 2014 composed heterogeneously of combining of the higher PSA and the lower PSA students. The medical ethics class model is thought to be very helpful educational method for improving of the PSA, and the grouping into homogeneous teams with PSA members of similar PSA level seems to be helpful to improve PSA than grouping into heterogeneous teams.
Adult ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Methods ; Problem Solving ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to provide basic data to establish a foundation for efficient operation of the organization by assessing the effects of self-efficacy and job stress (measured by self-efficacy, job demand, and job autonomy) on organizational commitment among clinical dental hygienists. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey study that used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data. After institutional review board approval, a survey was conducted from January to May 2017, targeting dental hygienists working in dental clinics and hospitals. The final 199 questionnaires were analyzed with PASW 18.0 for Windows (IBM Corp.). The data were analyzed using mean and/or standard deviation t-test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The means for self-efficacy, job demand, job autonomy, and organizational commitment were 55.94±9.65, 26.55±2.29, 20.24±3.88, and 49.49±8.39, respectively. Along with self-efficacy, the other factors of organizational commitment among dental hygienists that were statistically significant included job autonomy, mean salary (2,500~2,990 thousand Korean won [KRW] and ≥3,000 thousand KRW), and employee welfare (good), which are sub-areas of the surface acting. In other words, it was found that the higher the mean salary, the better the employee welfare, the higher self-efficacy, and the higher the organizational commitment, and the explanatory power of the model was approximately 42.1%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the higher the self-efficacy, job autonomy, mean salary, and employee welfare, the higher the organizational commitment. In order to improve job demand among dental hygienists, it is necessary to establish an effective plan to improve job welfare, self-efficacy, and job autonomy.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Humans ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships among nursing students' knowledge, attitudes to advance medical directives and ethics values. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional and descriptive survey, carried out with 232 students from two schools of nursing, one located in B and C city. Student nurses' knowledge, attitudes for advance medical directives and ethics values were measured using structured self-report questionnaires. Data were analyzed using t-test or one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The scores for knowledge, attitudes for medical advance directives were 7.18 and 3.07, and for ethics values, 3.47. Nursing students' knowledge and attitude showed a significant difference depending on grade. Nursing students' ethics values showed significant differences depending on whether a study on ethics had been completed. A positive correlation was observed between nursing students' knowledge, attitudes for advance medical directives and ethics values. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that basic data for the development of an effective education program on ethics is important in establishing a positive attitude toward advance medical directives and the appropriate ethical values in student nurses.
Advance Directives ; Education ; Ethics ; Humans ; Nursing ; Students, Nursing