Awareness of medical ethics among medical students in a medical college in Bangalore

BACKGROUND: Medical ethics is a sensitive framework embedded within the professionalism of medical personnel. There are very few medical colleges in India with a standardised ethics curriculum, and with provisions for evaluation. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to assess the knowledge of, practices in and attitudes to healthcare ethics among postgraduate medical and interns students. METHODOLOGY: A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was carried out at in a medical college in Bangalore. A total of 225 interns and postgraduate students were interviewed. (Response rate 94%). The questionnaire, which was a 35-item pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire, included both closed and openended questions. The proposal for the study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) and the permission of the respective heads of department was obtained. Written consent was obtained from each participant. The returned questionnaires were analysed using SPSS version. Descriptive analysis was carried out for all the data RESULTS: Medical postgraduates and interns had obtained their knowledge of bioethics from "other sources such as the Internet, newspapers, etc followed by their "undergraduate training" and" experience at work': Nearly 98% of the medical postgraduates knew that their institution had an ethics committee. There was a difference between the postgraduate students and interns in terms of their attitude to and knowledge of healthcare ethics, with the former having a superior knowledge of the subject and a better attitude. CONCLUSIONS: The interns and postgraduates come across ethical issues during their training, but are not equipped to resolve the ethical dilemmas they encounter. The incorporation of a bioethics curriculum in the initial period of the postgraduate programme would be beneficial.