Building a Mini Biomedical Ethics Curricular Thread in an Immunology Course in Undergraduate Medical Curriculum

Abstract

Abstract Education in biomedical ethics has become an essential part of undergraduate medical curriculum. Integrating this topic longitudinally in the curriculum ensures early educational exposure and provides opportunities for continued advancement of students reasoning and behavior. The objective of this study is to develop a mini ethics curricular thread in the immunology course and to raise student awareness of ethical issues associated with disorders of the immune system. In our project, three ethics learning modules are designed and built in a six-week immune system course in the second semester of undergraduate medical curriculum. A mixed teaching approach using multiple teaching tools will be employed. The first module uses a movie about a well-known patient with severe combined immunodeficiency disease. The second module is delivered through a team-based learning case on human immunodeficiency virus. The third module uses small and large group discussions on blood transfusion and bone marrow transplantation. Quizzes and reflective writings are embedded in each module to assess student knowledge and attitudes. Student surveys will provide information on challenges and opportunities in teaching ethics within a biomedical science course. The qualitative analysis of student reflections will be presented in the poster. We believe this curricular design has the potential to help students build connections between science, human disease, and ethics. It will also shed light on how to integrate ethics in biomedical science courses to cultivate professionalism in the early stages of their medical training. Future direction includes the evaluation of the longitudinal impact of this training on students clinical practice.