Development of Appropriate Personality and Ethics in Medical Students
Abstract
Background: The objective of this research was to evaluate the progressive behavior development of fourth and fifth year medical students based on their first to third year attendance at the seminars, “How to develop good personality qualities and ethics.” The research focused on:
1. Behavioral differences between trained versus previous groups of students who had not been trained.
2. Whether and how the training actually affected student behavior.
3. Development of recommendations for future course.
Method: This was prospective cohort behavioral study. The data were elicited from fourth and fifth year medical students using questionnaires, direct observations, and informal interviews. They were compared with the collective subjective judgement of faculty members regarding former students who did not undergo the same training.
Results: Students who passed all of the training sessions had good relationships with teachers, colleagues patients, and family. The tone of their conversation was positive. Their behavior (manners and responsiveness to patients) and ethics (capacity to use appropriate medical techniques) were judged to be better than those students who had not been trained.
We concluded that since the first three years of training are formative (with eagerness and newness), training in behavior and ethics at this time is well-received; allowing students to prepare themselves for the following more interactive clinical phase of medical education.
Notwithstanding, the wholly subjective nature of the comparison of trained versus untrained students, all (100%) of the department heads and head nurses agreed that medical students should attend training in ethics and personal behavior development. Similarly, 92% of the fourth and fifth year students were of the opinion that behavior and ethics training, both in class and at camp, should continue because they learned about economizing, psychology, manners, appropriate attire, public conduct, and respectfulness toward teachers, colleagues, seniors and juniors
Key words: (1) Medical Students
(2) Personality
(3) Ethics
