Using newly deceased patients in teaching clinical skills: its ethical and educational challenges
Introduction: The newly deceased patients have long been used in medical schools to teach clinical skills without any challenges as it helps to train skilled doctors. Nowadays, the use of moulages and simulators are common in teaching clinical skills since these tools provide the opportunity for...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
2018-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Advances in Medical Education and Professionalism |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jamp.sums.ac.ir/index.php/JAMP/article/view/743 |
| Summary: | Introduction: The newly deceased patients have long been used
in medical schools to teach clinical skills without any challenges
as it helps to train skilled doctors. Nowadays, the use of moulages
and simulators are common in teaching clinical skills since these
tools provide the opportunity for frequent practice without any
pain and injury. There are specific procedures which still require
the use of cadavers. However, the increased significance of
patient rights has generally challenged the practicality of using
the deceased bodies for this purpose. This study was designed
with the aim of determining to what extent clinical skill training
is dependent on the recently deceased patients.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional mixed-method triangulation
design conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a researcher-made
questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data of the medical
students and residents. The data were used to assess the frequency
of experience. In the second stage, semi-structured interviews were
conducted with faculty members and fellows in order to evaluate
the educational impact of this type of procedure and the influential
factors. The quantitative data were analyzed using statistical
software, and the qualitative codes were extracted following a
content analysis. Finally, a comparative analysis was performed.
Results: Twenty five residents (26%) and seven medical students
(14%) had the experience of performing procedures on the
recently deceased patients for training purposes. About half of
the residents and 33% of the medical students had observed their
colleagues practicing procedures on cadavers. In the qualitative
phase, the main categories included professional ethics, law and
educational requirements.
Conclusion: A relatively low number of medical students and
residents had experienced procedures on the newly deceased
patients. In this regard, ethical, religious and legal concerns might
have played a part despite the desire to learn. It would be effective
to direct these educational experiences toward procedures
that cannot be mastered through moulages and simulators, and
to lay the legal and executive ground so that performing these
procedures under the supervision of professors, and with a level
of documentation would have no legal challenges. |
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| ISSN: | 2322-2220 2322-3561 |