moral judgment competencies in medical students - is medical education out of balance?
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Authors: Sunčana Kukolja Taradi, Milan Taradi, Mladenka Vrcić Keglević, Darko Antičević University of Zagreb Medical School, Croatia. Presentation at AMEE 2009 - Association for Medical Education in Europe Conference,30 August to 3 September, Malaga, Spain(http://www.amee.org) Abstract: Background Although medical doctors face moral dilemmas every day and presumably have higher requirements for morally competent professional behavior than any other profession, medical students are mostly trained only to handle the scientific and technical aspects of the profession but not the moral. A number of studies world wide found a troublesome phenomenon: students' moral judgment competences decline during their medical education. Summary of work Lind's Moral Judgment Test (MJT) was used to assess moral judgment competences of medical students (1st, 3rd, and 5th year) at University of Zagreb Medical School. Summary of results Results from our cross-sectional study revealed that the MJT Competence-score (C-score) of tested medical students (N=182) showed a decline tendency, indicating a regression in their moral judgment competences. Students' C-score: 1st year = 21.27; 3rd year = 16.39; 5th year = 17.12. Conclusions Medical students get a highly sophisticated technical training but not the moral education needed to cope with dilemmas they will be confronted within their professional life. It seems like there is a hidden curriculum in the structure of medical education that prevents rather than fosters the development of moral judgment competencies. Take-home message For holistic development of medical students a change of the curriculum and organization of medical education is needed that will create an academic atmosphere fostering students' moral development.TRANSCRIPT
