Gachon Medical School has developed and implemented a medical ethics course entitled, "Life and Society II". The course uses dilemma discussion based on medical case studies to allow students to develop their moral reasoning ability in both clinical and hospital settings.
The course was developed by the faculty of medicine during the 1998-1999 academic years. The program was designed in a four-stage process: 1) learning objectives were identified, 2) contemporary controversies and relevant ethical issues were chosen based on relevance to modern medical practice, 3) a syllabus was drafted based on the aforementioned ethical issues and teaching methods appropriate for each issue were integrated into the syllabus, and 4) tutorial manuals were produced. The course was taught to 41 second-year premedical students and evaluated by student surveys.
The learning goals were identified through both a literature survey of contemporary issues in medical ethics and an in-house survey of important content to teach in a medical ethics course. The curriculum was designed based on the identification of specific learning objectives per ethical issue, selection of appropriate materials and content, organization of dilemma scenarios and formulation of questions for discussion.
The course was taught using a variety of teaching formats: dilemma discussions, seminars, tutorials, lectures, assigned readings and student presentations. Positive results were obtained from the student surveys: it was discovered that most students thought that the course's learning objectives were achieved. Furthermore, of all the teaching methods employed, most of our students felt that discussing dilemmas was the most effective method for developing moral reasoning ability.
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