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Original Articles

Preparing Future Physicians in Medical Ethics: A Tension-Centered Study of Institutional and Situational Dualities

 

Abstract

Communication research on physician socialization has been silent on physician preparation in medical ethics. To develop knowledge in this area, I drew on a tension-centered model from organizational studies to analyze transcripts of interviews with 20 behavioral science course directors at 11 medical schools. I found participants describing ethics as situational dilemmas requiring resolution and as the equipping of students with the resources of ethics skills and, to a lesser extent, ethical character. I also found actors managing tension between the ethics-as-skill and ethics-as-character institutions of medical ethics education through a strategy of separation; skills were discussed as short-term course outcomes and character as long-term visions of who participants hoped students would one day become beyond their pre-clinical training. I conclude with discussions on the study's substantive and theoretical contributions and the implications for future research and training of medical students.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James Olumide Olufowote

James Olumide Olufowote (Ph.D., Purdue University, 2005) is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Oklahoma.

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