Views of the taught and the teachers on medical ethics teaching in two universities in Kenya.

Abstract

Medical or clinical ethics provides guidance for health practitioners and has, hopefully, been taught to medical students during training. The teaching of clinical/medical ethics is more important in the current times because of advances in medical science and the different cultural and socioeconomic circumstances in which medicine is practised. This study sought to determine if and how clinical/medical ethics was taught at two Kenyan medical schools by conducting focus group discussions with undergraduate students and key informant interviews with lecturers teaching ethics and academic administrators. While medical/clinical ethics is a part of the medical curriculum approved by the Kenya Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (Board) and is taught during the training, we identified a gap between the theory and application of ethics education. Undergraduates, medical school administrators and lecturers from both institutions acknowledged a lack of role models and mentors, and a need for further training in communication skills since medical ethics has not been made an examinable subject and there has been no formal requirement for training of lecturers teaching ethics. For the short-term, these gaps can be addressed by training lecturers in medical/clinical ethics, and identifying and utilising suitable reference materials, while long-term measures include developing context-appropriate materials for teaching, in addition to nurturing mentorship skills among lecturers for ethical role modeling.