Comparison of the Medical Ethics Approaches according to Professional Experience and the Source of Medical Ethics Training: A Survey Study

Objective: This study aimed to compare the perspective on, the standard of knowledge and perceptions of medical ethics in the sixth-grade medical faculty students of a university hospital and the residents and academics working in the same hospital. Materials and Methods: In the first step, the participants were divided into three groups as sixth-grade medical students, residents and academics. Each group included 100 participants. The participants were divided into groups according to the source of ethics training (from the person with ethical expertise or except for the ethics expert). The questionnaire, which consisted of 10 main questions, was applied to the participants one-to-one and face to face. The first five questions evaluate the demographic data of the participants, the questions 6, 7, 8 and 9 evaluate the participants' perspectives on medical ethics education and the 10th question evaluates the associations of medical ethics. Results: The most common age range was 20-24 (30%) years. The majority of the participants agreed that medical ethics training was necessary (92.7%). The findings showed that participants who received medical ethics education from an ethics specialist had more ideas about the distinction between deontology and medical ethics (86.3% vs. 76.1%, p<0.001). The findings showed that participants who received training from ethical experts had higher knowledge of medical ethics. Conclusion: Providing ethical education by experts may ensure that healthcare professionals have a higher level of basic ethical knowledge. All groups agree on the necessity of medical ethics education.