engleski

Moral Judgment Competencies in Medical Students - Is Medical Education out of Balance?

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. Available data world wide suggest that many medical students show little change in their moral development or even experience a decline of moral judgment competencies. Summary of work Lind's Moral Judgment Test (MJT) was used to assess moral judgment competences of medical students of 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 the dilemmas that they are confronted with in 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.

medicinska etika; medicinska edukacija; MJT; kompetencije moralnog rasuđivanja; moralne dileme

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