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Abstract

Background:

Knowledge of ethics has a significant influence on the professionalism and moral qualities of doctors and also helps them to face ethical issues. The first step in incorporating ethics on a bigger scale in our curriculum will be to determine the level of the basic knowledge and attitude among medical students on ethics. Hence, this study was planned at a medical college among students to evaluate the level of knowledge and attitude about medical ethics.

Objectives:

The objective of the study was to assess and to compare the level of knowledge and attitude about medical ethics among students and interns.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among 147 second-year students, 104 interns, and the questionnaire consisted of 14 questions, five questions on knowledge and nine on attitude domain. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 10, and knowledge comparison between students was done using Chi-square test, while the attitude was compared using Mann–Whitney

U

-test and

P

< 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results:

Nearly 77.9% of interns and 39% of students knew about the basic principles of ethics and 82.9% of students and 60.6% of interns told that doctors should maintain patient's confidentiality and there was a significant statistical difference in knowledge and attitude between the students and interns.

Conclusion:

The knowledge and attitude of undergraduate students on medical ethics was found to be satisfactory, and the results of this study can be used to further strengthen the medical curriculum and such initiatives will help in developing ethically competent doctors.

Pages

131

Last Page

136

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