EVALUATION OF ETHICAL SENSITIVITY OF FRESHLY GRADUATED DENTAL SURGEONS
Abstract
Introduction: The aim of teaching ethics to the doctors is to make them recognize the humanistic and ethical aspects of medical careers. There is a difference between the culture of profession and business. Care and concern of oral health for all the people are the values in the culture of dentistry whereas building a successful and profitable enterprise are the values of business culture. So ethics teaching and assessment should be given due importance.  In this respect, ethical sensitivity is considered to be an emerging concept with potential utility in research and practice.
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Methods: All freshly graduated dental surgeons doing house job at Sardar Begum Dental College were formally invited to the Prosthodontics Department. After an informed consent taken related to their willingness for participation, data collection from each participant was obtained through a standardized questionnaire containing Vignettes/ scenarios.Â
Results: Mean age of the participants was 23.2 with age range 4. About 53% freshly graduated dental surgeons in the study were found to be ethically sensitive whereas, 47% were partially sensitive to ethics. Within the limitations of the study relation between ethical sensitivity of freshly graduated dental surgeons and gender, religion, living status and class attendance of the participants was insignificant.
Conclusion: Due to an obvious association between ethics and patient care, it is important to assess ethical sensitivity of the students before they begin their clinical experiences.
Key Words: Â
Ethical sensitivity score, ethics, vignettes, scenarios, clinical scenarios, oral health.
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