Evaluating the Effect of the Medical Ethics Course on Increasing Knowledge of Professional Ethics Codes in Undergraduate Dentistry Students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Awareness of ethics principles is fundamental to morality in professionalism. Medical ethics courses are the most important source of knowledge about professional ethics. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of these courses on increasing the knowledge of dentistry students about professional ethics codes.

51 dentistry students at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences who had taken themedical ethics course in 2018 were evaluated through a multiple choice questionnaire related to the ethics code, with confirmed validity and reliability through an earlier published study (Cronbach′s alpa= 0.7). The students’ knowledge was evaluated before and after the course. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 18 using the Wilcoxon test.

The mean score of the students' knowledge increased significantly after the course (74% versus 83%, P<0.001). The scores related to veracity, patient autonomy, and justice codes were significantly higher after the course. However, mean scores of the beneficence and non-maleficence codes did not show statistically significant differences (P values = 0.317 and 0.354, respectively). Veracity code, significantly improved after the course; however, the mean score was still low (39%)

The results of this study indicated that medical ethics courses effectively increased dental students' general knowledge about ethical codes. But in some certain aspects of ethical concepts like veracity, clinical and problem-based education are required.