Educational Ethical Challenges in the Viewpoint of Students in Medical Sciences: A Qualitative Study with Content Analysis Approach

Ethical behaviors of students can result from moral decisions based on moral knowledge and dispositions of them. This study aimed to explore the students’ perception of educational ethical challenges. This qualitative study used a content analysis approach. Purposeful sampling was used to select participants. In order to collect data, in-depth, face-to-face, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted. Each interview lasted approximately 60 to 100 minutes. The analysis of data was performed simultaneously with data collection using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Data saturation reached after interviewing with 40 students. The students were studying in the fields of medicine, nursing, midwifery, paramedicine, allied health, dentistry, and pharmacy. There were 45% were men and 55% were women in the sample. The average age of men and women was 22 ± 1 and 22 ± 1.04 years, respectively. After the analysis of interviews, three themes including scientific challenges, communication challenges, and professional challenges and eight categories were achieved. The study indicate that students are facing scientific, communication, and professional challenges in education. Therefore, the factors influencing ethics in education must identify to increase the effectiveness of education and strength moral values in medical education.