Bioethics Education Research Articles

Effects of Bioethics Education on Biomedical Ethics Consciousness, Interpersonal Relationship Empathy and Social Empathy, Critical Thinking Tendency, and Moral Behavior

Effects of Bioethics Education on Biomedical Ethics Consciousness, Interpersonal Relationship Empathy and Social Empathy, Critical Thinking Tendency, and Moral Behavior

Promoting Bioethical Literacy in Primary Education: The European Reality and the Case of Greece

The development of biotechnology during the last decades brings societies and policymakers a fresh view on how to communicate and manage the biotechnological knowledge and ethical aspects that arise, concurrently. During the era of biotechnological accomplishments and globalization, a new field of ethics arises, the field of Bioethics. It aims to balance between the dangers that emerge because of the implementation of biotechnological accomplishments on human life and their benefits. With the promotion of Bioethics education, everyone has to realize his personality, his mentality, his citizenship, and his connection to others. Many educational institutes worldwide embody bioethical courses for their students and an adequate number of curricula have been created for this purpose. Researchers and educators accord with the necessity of public ethical and bioethical literacy already from elementary school. At the same time in many seminars organized by the Committees on Bioethics, the appropriateness of teaching Bioethics primarily is presented and organizations worldwide support the introduction of Bioethics courses in the curricula. The majority of European countries have incorporated ethics and bioethics courses into their curricula for Primary Education. Greece amongst other countries is the exception to that rule. The goal of this dissertation is to convince the local education policymakers about the importance of Bioethics education so to include ethics and bioethics courses in the Greek educational system, in all grades and especially in elementary school, based on the necessity for the creation of educated future citizens for the country and the world.

AB028. Teaching bioethics and bioethics research using inquiry-based pedagogy

Background: Bioethics, which was previously confined to the related studies of philosophy, ethics, biology, and medicine is a growing field of study that has broadened to include public health, law, and globalization among others. This has made the teaching of bioethics and bioethics research education increasingly significant. In this light, this paper discusses how bioethics and bioethics research can be taught using an inquiry-based pedagogy, particularly, through building a community of inquiry.

Evaluating the effectiveness of bioethics education through quality standards and indicators

Evaluating the effectiveness of bioethics education through quality standards and indicators

STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON THE ROLE OF ETHICS EDUCATION FOR THEIR FUTURE MEDICAL PRACTICE

INTRODUCTION: Worldwide, in different ways, ethical dilemmas arise in medicine and life sciences. It is critical for medical professionals to respond with confidence when ethical challenges are addressed in their clinical practice. Medical ethics and bioethics education is recognized as an essential course of the medical curriculum. The course aims to provide students with knowledge and competencies on dealing with moral problems.
 OBJECTIVES: In this article, we aim to explore students’ views about the importance and role of medical ethics education for their future practice. Their suggestions on specific medical ethics and bioethics topics were also considered, as well as previous knowledge on ethics before they enrolled in university.
 METHODS: A paper questionnaire was developed and distributed among first-year foreign medical students from the Faculty of Medicine in the Medical University-Sofia in Bulgaria. All students participated in the study anonymously and voluntarily. The study was conducted during January and February 2020.
 RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were received from 366 medical students. Data collected demonstrates that only 19% of the students were taught ethics before enrolling in university and covered topics on philosophy and ethics, civil and human rights. The majority (92%) of the responders believe that the study of medical ethics and bioethics helps medical professionals to improve their skills in identifying ethical problems in their everyday practice. Interesting were the suggestions for topics in medical ethics and bioethics that needed further study during lectures and seminars and included principles of medical ethics and bioethics, ethical behavior in medicine and health care, ethical dimensions of new technologies in health care, ethical dimensions of clinical decisions and patients’ quality of life, ethics and health management.
 CONCLUSIONS: Medical ethics education is significant for future physicians, helping them to improve their skills in identifying ethical issues, and base their decisions on fundamental ethical principals in their everyday practice. Attention should be given to topics related to principles of medical ethics, models of patient-physician relationships, new technologies in health care, ethics and health policy.

Bioethics Education on Medical Students: Opinions About Ethical Dilemmas

Medical education aims to train professionals who are capable of making extremely complex decisions. As part of the medical curriculum, bioethics education could have an important role in promoting moral development and decision-making in medical students. This study aims to determine if, after a Bioethics and Professional Deontology course, medical students would present a change of opinion on three ethical dilemmas. A quantitative and longitudinal study was developed by applying the MCTxt (Moral Competence Test extended), composed of three ethical dilemmas (Worker, doctor, and judge dilemmas), to a sample of 70, fourth year medical students, from a Portuguese medical school. The questionnaire was applied at the beginning and end of a bioethics course, with a 3 month time interval. For this study the opinion scores were analyzed and described using the mean and standard deviation. The comparison of these scores, at both times, were performed using t-tests for paired samples. A significance level of 5% was used. For students who were neutral in the first application, the majority went on to agree or disagree with the performance of the dilemma character, ultimately showing less indecision at the end of bioethics course. The results suggest that, after the bioethics course, students have lower indecision, however the changes were very tenuous. Bioethics education is important to promote more opportunities for reflection and discussion, to stimulate critical judgment, and the ability to make decisions by medical students. Further research could help to better understand this subject.

Ethical Approach to Road Traffic Injuries Prevention

"Road traffic injuries are widespread public health problem, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, being the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years. Road injury ranks 8th after the main causes of death, and unless there will not be a complex approach to prevention those will rank 5th by 2030. The Republic of Moldova is characterized by a high mortality due to road crashes, children and adults over 50 years are more prone to injury or a road crashes and the age group 15-39 years there is a higher risk of death as driver or passenger in a transport unit. Road traffic injuries can be prevented, and many government interventions, policies and programs have been proposed in order to prevent road injuries, but their prevention was less approached by applying and respecting ethical aspects among all the participants in traffic. Each one involved in the road traffic can contribute in improving the road safety by his/her responsibility, which refers to consciousness, morality, ethics and ethical behavior, culture. Drivers and pedestrian have the moral duty while driving to use seat belt, comply with road traffic rules and safety requirements and have duty not to harm- to avoid putting themselves and others in danger. We need much more understandings of the behavior risk factors, increasing psychological capacity and benefits, investing in educational campaigns, effective communication, social support, and encouragement, increase awareness of responsibility in traffic and increasing respect for all participants in traffic, without causing any harm. Acknowledgement: Rosamond Rhodes, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Education, Director of Bioethics Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA. "

텍스트네트워크분석 및 토픽모델링을 적용한 국내 간호윤리 연구 동향

This study aimed to explore research trends of nursing ethics in Korea applying text network analysis and topic modelling. 306 articles published in KCI journals from 1998 to 2021 were identified and 516 author-provided keywords were collected. A co-occurrence matrix with 123 keywords, which appeared at least in two articles, were developed based on the Jaccard coefficient. Degree centrality and betweenness centrality were calculated and LDA topic modelling were performed using NetMiner software. The largest number of the articles (70, 23%) were published in Korean Journal of Medical Ethics. The most critical core-keywords, defined as the top 30 keywords in degree centrality and betweenness centrality, were ‘nursing students’ and ‘moral sensitivity’. The other core-keywords included ‘attitude,’ ‘awareness,’ ‘professionalism,’ ‘knowledge,’ and ‘critical thinking.’ related to ethical competence, ‘death,’ ‘hospice,’ ‘euthanasia,’ and ‘research ethics’ related to bioethical issues, and ‘job satisfaction,’ ‘burn out,’ ‘stress,’ ‘organizational culture,’ ‘ethical leadership,’ and ‘ethical climate’ related to organization and leadership. Five topics were identified and named as a) bioethics education for nursing students, b) knowledge and attitudes for bioethical issues, c) awareness and values of bioethics, d) ethical conflicts of RNs, and e) nursing ethics education. This study found that bioethics was the main topics in Korean nursing ethics research and suggested nursing research should focus on ethical issues RNs frequently experience in patient care. Also, research gaps were inferred in multiple topics including nurse-to-nurse relationships, theoretical perspectives of virtue ethics and care ethics, or witnessing healthcare professionals’ unethical behavior.

Bioethical Quandaries during the Period of a Pandemic

The period of the pandemic gave rise to multiple and intractable bioethical quandaries arising. In the context of the present study, we will limit ourselves to the examination of the critical issues of mandatory vaccination to manage the pandemic; compulsory medical testing, including temperature screening of the population; the use of experimental drugs; making the wearing of face masks mandatory; and the individual responsibility of each of us for the prevention of the pandemic. Participation stresses the importance of education in bioethics. Accordingly, it supports the notion that, once we win the fight for life and health, constitutional lawyers ought to take the reins and determine that the character of restrictive measures and healthcare policies adopted in periods of crisis, when a prime opportunity for their formulation presented itself because of the pandemic, is one of extraordinariness.

EVANGELICALISM IN UGANDA: IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND BIOETHICS.

Considered attention is needed to the interplay between evangelical and charismatic religions and legislation in Uganda and their implications for public health, bioethics, and medical education. This manuscript examines the growth of the evangelical and charismatic movements in Uganda during the past several decades, concurrent trends in the formulation and implementation of law and public policy, and implications for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, family violence, physician-patient communication, and medical and health education. The article concludes with suggested strategies to address the adverse consequences stemming from the interjection of religious perspectives into the domains of public health, clinical care, and health education.

Структурування біоетичної освіти: нарощування біоетичного потенціалу, досвід, практики

The article is divided into the following main blocks: initiatives of bioethics` capacity building; practices and experiences in the bioethicist`s work. The article aims to investigate the structuring possibilities of bioethical education, and the model of integrative bioethics is seen in this context as a promising device/tool. The figure-scheme, created by the author, shows 2 bioethics' growth lines - educational, as a formal (institutional) line and societal, as informal (cultural) one. In describing the lines, the author has identified the main aspects of influence: the cultural aspect (a); the political aspect (c); the humanistic aspect / human capital (c). In the educational (formal) sphere the following areas of activity were described - school, education, interdisciplinary programs in bioethics. In societal (informal) - experience of participation of community organizations in the creation of projects and grant activities of bioethicists. Hereof the following blocks were discussed - Bioethicist as an activist; Role of bioethicist as a translator, agent of change. Education through bioethics and public discussion of bioethical issues is what can be called a «circle of integrity». Bioethics education prepares community members to deal with ethically challenging issues by providing them with the skills to address ethical challenges in the everyday routine of one community.
 Bioethics capacity building was reviewed through the creation of a professional network of bioethics experts and their educational programmes - the Integrative Platform of Bioethics (InPlatBio). A network of bioethicists and stakeholders provides a learning-friendly environment. Both - networks and the development of links with different informal organisations and associations are important for essential communicative skills. The use of online courses, webinars is a modern source of information on the development of bioethics in Ukraine as well as in European countries.

Teaching of ethics in medical undergraduate programs

Literature points to the existent diversity in medical graduate courses’ curriculums, reinforcing the need to systematise and deepen more studies in this area with the aim of qualifying the formation of our future professionals. This study aims to understand the methods used in the teaching of Bioethics in medical graduation worldwide. It was characterised as an integrative review and the databases used were Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science. In total 2993 articles were identified and 72 met the pre-selected criteria and were included in the review. The characteristics of teaching bioethics that stood out the most in the analysis were: teaching still very heterogeneous between different universities, use of various methodologies in the process of teaching/learning, teaching disconnected from the medical practice of students showing the need to integrate the curriculum with clinical practice and challenges of teaching-learning process. Most of the studies in this review lead us to understand that there is still no minimum parameters on the ideal method to teach bioethics, suggesting that it may affect the feeling of unpreparedness felt by students in face of ethical issues in clinical practice, despite the theoretical basis acquired.

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF BIOETHICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

This article presents a theoretical analysis of the history of the formation and existence of a relatively new branch of scientific knowledge - bioethics - at the present stage of its development. Different approaches to the definition of the causes and prerequisites for the emergence of bioethics are analyzed. The key events of the social, moral, ethical and scientific life of society that have influenced the emergence and identification of the direction of bioethics are indicated. The relevance and importance of bioethics in the modern world is demonstrated. The authors of the article have analyzed existing materials on this problem and identified a number of significant problems, the solution of which is currently being addressed by researchers of bioethical issues of our time. Moreover, the article presents a theoretical analysis of such important concepts of bioethics as bioethical consciousness, bioethical upbringing and education. The main and most important functions of bioethical consciousness are highlighted. It is shown that bioethical upbringing and education is becoming extremely important today for the training of highly qualified specialists of any profile.

Hospital chaplains as ethical consultants in making difficult medical decisions

Background and aimsFew Polish hospitals have Hospital Ethics Committee (HECs) and the services are not always adequate. In this situation, the role of HECs, in providing, among others, ethical advice...

The teaching of bioethics in medical school

The extraordinary technological development that occurred in the last fifty years, in which Medicine has evolved more than in the previous fifty centuries, has given rise to several questions of an ethical nature. Since the second half of the last century, there has been a growing perception that doctors are increasingly distant from their patients, prioritizing, at most, the technical aspect of the profession. Bioethics emerged to help humanity to act in a balanced way in the face of environmental and behavioral changes arising from technological evolution.

The Challenge of Learning Ethics as a Medical Student: Synthetic Ethics as a New Approach

Over the past few decades, medical school curricula have grown to include bioethics courses, recognizing the importance of ethical clinical practice [1, 2, 3]. As a medical student, I have found that one of the most difficult ethical challenges for myself and others during training has been simply learning bioethics. This project examines some of the issues I have seen in bioethics education, which stymie both knowledge uptake by students and the application of moral thought in day-to-day practice; it then suggests a new approach to teaching bioethics, one founded in what I call “synthetic ethics” – being able to engage in moral reasoning that is vibrant and flexible, rather than dogmatic and unexamined, using the challenges posed by COVID-19 as a case study. I outline three general issues in bioethics pedagogy that curtail students’ ability to engage in synthetic ethics, informed by both my own experience and the existing literature: 1) teachers not challenging personal subjectivism, which fails to inculcate students with the moral character they need as physicians [4]; 2) espousal of the hard, intransigent deontology of some faculty and the AMA [5, 6]; and 3) the cavalier disinterest of many students towards the humanities [7]. This is all in the context of our pluralistic society, which makes approaching ethical quandaries even more complex and challenging for many non-philosophers; if pluralism is abandoned for ethical absolutism, we run the risk of ethical imperialism [8]. The need for effective bioethical thought is demonstrated by scenarios like the COVID pandemic: resources are stretched and the disease is global – and the bioethical establishment provides solutions that are unsatisfying, pitting basic principles against each other with no resolution [9, 10]. This is where synthetic ethics becomes really necessary: it allows us to balance different cultural and moral considerations to find new solutions that are better for patients and providers. By engaging with synthetic ethics – adopting a Hegelian approach (Figure 1) to resolving theoretical tensions and being willing to bracket out overly-deontological values – we can combine disparate theories or their component parts, allowing us to better address these issues and come up with new solutions. I close with a few thoughts on implementation of synthetic ethics: more rigorous teaching of basic ethical theories, emphasizing innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, utilizing stimulating case studies and being willing to move to pass/fail grading all are possible ways to incorporate synthetic ethics training into medical school coursework. By doing so, we will develop the faculties that physicians need to address the problems that will inevitably arise during our careers.

Promoting Ethically Responsible Use of Agricultural Biotechnology.

Growing global demands for food, bioenergy, and specialty products, along with the threat posed by various environmental changes, present substantial challenges for agricultural production. Agricultural biotechnology offers a promising avenue for meeting these challenges; however, ethical and sociocultural concerns must first be addressed, to ensure widespread public trust and uptake. To be effective, we need to develop solutions that are ethically responsible, socially responsive, relevant to people of different cultural and social backgrounds, and conveyed to the public in a convincing and straightforward manner. Here, we highlight how ethical approaches, principled decision-making strategies, citizen-stakeholder participation, effective science communication, and bioethics education should be used to guide responsible use of agricultural biotechnology.

Education and bioethics teaching in times of pandemic

Abstract: Introduction: Due to the suspension of face-to-face activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Higher Education Institutions had to discuss and plan alternative actions in an attempt to readequate themselves to emerging educational demands in order to offer remote accessibility to the academic community and, consequently, reduce social and digital exclusion. Development: Having that in mind, this article aims at offering a reflection on the teaching of bioethics under the perspective of social justice and education. Within this context, the students’ socioeconomic profile cannot be ignored in the planning of online education, since it directly affects students’ accessibility to academic activities through the use of computers and the internet. Therefore, this article proposes the use of moral intelligence skills as learning goals, in addition to revising and contextualizing pre-existing problems prior to the new reality of didactic contents. Moreover, it proposes a reflection on how bioethics may contribute to the discussions on the increase in social inequalities during this moment of crisis. Conclusion: The reflections presented in this article can be used in both remote, face-to-face and hybrid teaching contexts.

Education and bioethics teaching in times of pandemic

Abstract: Introduction: Due to the suspension of face-to-face activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Higher Education Institutions had to discuss and plan alternative actions in an attempt to readequate themselves to emerging educational demands in order to offer remote accessibility to the academic community and, consequently, reduce social and digital exclusion. Development: Having that in mind, this article aims at offering a reflection on the teaching of bioethics under the perspective of social justice and education. Within this context, the students’ socioeconomic profile cannot be ignored in the planning of online education, since it directly affects students’ accessibility to academic activities through the use of computers and the internet. Therefore, this article proposes the use of moral intelligence skills as learning goals, in addition to revising and contextualizing pre-existing problems prior to the new reality of didactic contents. Moreover, it proposes a reflection on how bioethics may contribute to the discussions on the increase in social inequalities during this moment of crisis. Conclusion: The reflections presented in this article can be used in both remote, face-to-face and hybrid teaching contexts.

When good science can turn out bad: Addressing dual-use issues in bioethics education

When good science can turn out bad: Addressing dual-use issues in bioethics education