“Can Virtue Be Taught?”: A Content Analysis of Medical Students’ Opinions of the Professional and Ethical Challenges to their Professional Identity Formation

Background: Efforts have begun to characterize the ethical and professional issues encountered by medical students in their clinical years. By applying previously identified taxonomies to a national sample of medical students, this study seeks to develop generalizable insights that can inform professional identity formation across various clerkships and medical institutions.Methods: In a national survey of medical students, participants answered an open-ended survey item that asked them to describe a clinical experience involving an ethical or professional issue. We conducted a content analysis with these responses using the Kaldjian taxonomy of ethical and professionalism themes in medical education through an iterative, consensus-building process. Noting the emerging virtues-based approach to ethics and professionalism, we also reexamined the data using a taxonomy of virtues.Results: The response rate to this survey item was 144 out of 499 eligible respondents (28.9%). All 144 responses were successfully coded under one or more themes in the original taxonomy of ethical and professional issues, resulting in a total of 173 coded responses. Professional Duties was the most frequently coded theme (29.2%), followed by Communication (26.4%), Quality of Care (18.8%), Student-specific Issues of Moral Distress (16.7%), Decisions Regarding Treatment (16.0%), and Justice (13.2%). In the virtues taxonomy, 180 total responses were coded from the 144 original responses, and the most frequent virtue coded was Wisdom (23.6%), followed by Respectfulness (20.1%) and Compassion or Empathy (13.9%).Conclusions: Originally developed from students’ clinical experiences in one institution, the Kaldjian taxonomy appears to serve as a useful analytical framework for categorizing a variety of clinical experiences faced by a national sample of medical students. This study also supports the development of virtue-based programs that focus on cultivating the virtue of wisdom in the practice of medicine.

“Can virtue be taught?”: a content analysis of medical students’ opinions of the professional and ethical challenges to their professional identity formation

Background Efforts have begun to characterize the ethical and professional issues encountered by medical students in their clinical years. By applying previously identified taxonomies to a national sample of medical students, this study seeks to develop generalizable insights that can inform professional identity formation across various clerkships and medical institutions. Methods In a national survey of medical students, participants answered an open-ended survey item that asked them to describe a clinical experience involving an ethical or professional issue. We conducted a content analysis with these responses using the Kaldjian taxonomy of ethical and professionalism themes in medical education through an iterative, consensus-building process. Noting the emerging virtues-based approach to ethics and professionalism, we also reexamined the data using a taxonomy of virtues. Results The response rate to this survey item was 144 out of 499 eligible respondents (28.9%). All 144 responses were successfully coded under one or more themes in the original taxonomy of ethical and professional issues, resulting in a total of 173 coded responses. Professional duties was the most frequently coded theme (29.2%), followed by Communication (26.4%), Quality of care (18.8%), Student-specific issues of moral distress (16.7%), Decisions regarding treatment (16.0%), and Justice (13.2%). In the virtues taxonomy, 180 total responses were coded from the 144 original responses, and the most frequent virtue coded was Wisdom (23.6%), followed by Respectfulness (20.1%) and Compassion or Empathy (13.9%). Conclusions Originally developed from students’ clinical experiences in one institution, the Kaldjian taxonomy appears to serve as a useful analytical framework for categorizing a variety of clinical experiences faced by a national sample of medical students. This study also supports the development of virtue-based programs that focus on cultivating the virtue of wisdom in the practice of medicine.

“Can Virtue Be Taught?”: A Content Analysis of Medical Students’ Opinions of the Professional and Ethical Challenges to their Professional Identity Formation

Background Efforts have begun to characterize the ethical and professional issues encountered by medical students in their clinical years. By applying previously identified taxonomies to a national sample of medical students, this study seeks to develop generalizable insights that can inform professional identity formation across various clerkships and medical institutions. Methods In a national survey of medical students, participants answered an open-ended survey item that asked them to describe a clinical experience involving an ethical or professional issue. We coded these responses using the Kaldjian taxonomy of ethical and professionalism themes in medical education through an iterative, consensus-building process. Noting the emerging virtues-based approach to ethics and professionalism, we also reexamined the data using a taxonomy of virtues. Results The response rate to this survey item was 144 out of 499 eligible respondents (28.9%). All 144 responses were successfully coded under one or more themes in the original taxonomy of ethical and professional issues, resulting in a total of 173 coded responses. Professional Duties was the most frequently coded theme (29.2%), followed by Communication (26.4%), Quality of Care (18.8%), Student-specific Issues of Moral Distress (16.7%), Decisions Regarding Treatment (16.0%), and Justice (13.2%). In the virtues taxonomy, 180 total responses were coded from the 144 original responses, and the most frequent virtue coded was Wisdom (23.6%), followed by Respectfulness (20.1%) and Compassion or Empathy (13.9%). Conclusions Originally developed from students’ clinical experiences in one institution, the Kaldjian taxonomy appears to serve as a useful analytical framework for categorizing a variety of clinical experiences faced by a national sample of medical students. This study also supports the development of virtue-based programs that focus on cultivating the virtue of wisdom in the practice of medicine.

Intra-building People Localisation Using Personal Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Devices

This paper discusses the conceptual implementation of a system to locate people inside buildings using their personal Bluetooth® low energy device(s) in situations of a crisis. Various aspects of BLE technology are covered with regard to their usage for emergency management. Legal, social, ethical and professional issues are also discussed in using this technology, especially in matters of safeguarding information privacy. The plan of the proposed system is then discussed and concluded.