Evaluation of the Views of Externs, Interns, Assistants, and Clinical Faculty Members on Clinical Professional Ethics

Education and observance of the principles of professional ethics in the clinical fields of medicine are always considered as important. The purpose of this study was to determine the views of trainees, interns and clinical assistants on the importance of observing clinical professional ethics.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The statistical population of the study included all trainees, interns, clinical assistants and clinical faculty members of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2017-18, out of whom (380 people) 320 were selected by available sampling method. The questions were identified in five areas: conscientiousness, respect for others, career excellence, honor and honesty, and altruism. T-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the quantitative data and chi-square test was used for analyzing the qualitative variables. In this study, all ethical considerations have been observed and no conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

320 participants took part in the present study (84%), out of whom 163 (50.9%) were female. Their mean age was 26.8±6.4. With regard to their frequency distribution, 128 (40%) were externs, 127 (39.7%) were interns, 51 (17.5%) were assistants and 9 (2.8%) were professors. 84.1% of the participants considered avoiding the use of derogatory sentences towards patients as an important option in clinical professional ethics. Men and women did not differ in their views on the importance of moral statements (P<0.844). The views of externs, interns, residents and professors on the importance of ethical codes were significantly different (P<0.035).

From the perspective of clinical participants, some items such as respect for patients were more important but were less important in the field of job excellence. Therefore, there is a need to strengthen internal motivation and emphasize the position of clinical professional ethics indicators in medical training programs for some insignificant reported items.