Assessment of knowledge and practice of bioethical principles in a healthcare setting.

Abstract

Background: Medical ethics is integral part of health care delivery or research now. So the study was planned to understand the knowledge level on medical ethics in a medical care setting. Methodology: The study was conducted in Madha Medical college research institute for the period of two months in 2019. It was a cross sectional study which was conducted with medical students, interns and doctors. A set of 20 questions were framed and responses collected randomly from responded offline and online method of data collection. Results: Among 151 participants 69(46%) were students, 46(30%) doctors, 36(24%) CRRIs. Doctors were performed good with the score of 64.18%, followed by students 40.88%, interns 31.11%. The overall performance among all participants was 44.89%. Ethical domain wise analysis was made. Respect for cultural diversity and pluralism, Human dignity and human rights, Benefit and harm, Privacy and confidentiality, Equality, justice and equity were better performed. The domain wise analysis also shows there is a highly significant difference of performance between doctors, students and interns. Conclusion: Current level of knowledge and practice is not satisfactory among medical students and interns and improvement is needed in application of ethics among medical practice and research among practicing doctors. Teaching ethics should be incorporated with medical curriculum intensively and assessed periodically.