Evaluation of student and graduate's opinions on the medical ethics course in the medical school curriculum, Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences, 2006-2007

Introduction and The emphasize that is on religious values in our country is the basis of activities that are considered to protect the level and value of human beings and the medical ethics has a great place among them. Medicine is unique among all the sciences, as it is related directly with the lives of humans, so ethics is an inseparable part of it and ethical advices act as guides during the medical professional activities. Teaching the medical ethics has been an important issue in medical curriculum during past two decades in Iran. The aim of this study was to gain the opinions and insights of medical students and also graduates of Jundishapur University of medical sciences on the course of medical ethics during 1385-86. The findings and results of this study may help in solving possible problems and be beneficial in adjusting the curriculum.Methods and Materials: this is a cross-sectional descriptive epidemiologic study and all the medical students and graduates of Jundishapur University of medical sciences in educational year 1385-86 who had had medical ethics in their curriculum before participated in this study. In this study 457 paper questionnaires including demographic and 8 questions about the insight and opinion on the course of medical ethics were distributed among the medical students and graduates, but only 398 answered questionnaires were gathered due to non-cooperation. The data were analyzed with SPSS software and P<0.05‌ considered to be significant. Among all the participates, 332 were medical students (83.4%), 66 were medical graduates (16.5%). In addition, 235 were female (59%) and 163 were male (41%). Overall, the graduates were less satisfied with the content of the medical ethics course and the ways it is taught and they simultaneouslyealized the importance of that course much more than the students. Most of the students (53.0%) considered the internship the appropriate time for the course and the same was considered by the graduates with a greater percentage (93.9%). according to the results of this study, a serious revision and change in the contents and the references of this course to more applied references and also an increase in the hours related to the course is suggested. In addition, the course should be taught in late steps of the medical education (last year for example) in order to be considered with more attention and interest by the students.