Evaluation of moral skills in medical students in Iran

Purpose: The issue of ethics has a remarkable and special position in medical educations because graduates of medical sciences will be directly responsible for public health. According to this reason, it is important to study the familiarity of medical students with the components of professional ethics. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge of medical students (in their last 2 years of education) of Shahid Beheshti University of medical sciences with professional ethics skills. Material and method: This descriptive-analytical study was performed among medical students of Shahid Beheshti University of medical sciences. The sample size was 120 medical students in their last year of education (73 females and 47 males) whose level of knowledge and familiarity with the components of professional moral skills was assessed through the Chambers et al. (2011) questionnaire. Result: The results of this study indicated that the professional moral skills of medical students of Shahid Beheshti University of medical sciences did not show a significant difference before and after passing the courses related to professional ethics. Also, the level of moral skills did not differ significantly between male and female students of this university. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, the necessity of changing the courses related to medical ethics in order to better acquaint students with professional ethics skills is inferred.