Medical ethics: training residents in family medicine

Ethical dilemmas are an inevitable part of the physician's professional life and experience in dealing with them is acquired over time. The experience that is acquired depends, largely, on the spectrum of medical situations that the physician encounters and the degree to which he or she is involved in them. A descriptive study was conducted among junior residents in family medicine in Israel. The study instrument was a questionnaire that assessed the experience and exposure the residents have to ethical issues in their family medicine residency programme. Residents were exposed to a broad spectrum of problems and involved in varying degrees in their solution. This provided a good opportunity for training in medical ethics, an approach which we believe should be an integral part of the residency programme. Research of this nature can provide information to guide curriculum development aimed at integrating theoretical teaching with experiential training while also monitoring residents' achievements.