gms | German Medical Science

12th Graz Conference – Quality of Teaching

18.09. - 20.09.2008 in Graz, Österreich

Teaching Bioethics in Croatian Medical Schools

Round Table/Runder Tisch

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  • corresponding author Mirjana Huic - University School of Medicine, Croation Medical Journal, Zagreb, Croatia
  • author Ana Marusic - University School of Medicine, Croation Medical Journal, Zagreb, Croatia

12. Grazer Konferenz - Qualität der Lehre: Skills and Attitudes. Graz, Österreich, 18.-20.09.2008. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc08grako16

doi: 10.3205/08grako16, urn:nbn:de:0183-08grako163

Received: January 15, 2009
Revised: February 5, 2009
Accepted: February 18, 2009
Published: April 6, 2009

© 2009 Huic et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Round Table Discussion/Diskussion am runden Tisch

In the era of direct influence of for-profit companies on education, clinical practice, and clinical research, medical schools should teach ethics at undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing education level. They should create a climate that promotes research ethics, to evaluate the adherence to rules, and, most of all, to educate about responsible conduct of research. At Croatian medical schools, teaching the principles of bioethics is incorporated into a mandatory undergraduate course on

research methodology for second-year students [1], as well as into postgraduate and continuing education on principles of research in medicine (see Table 1 [Tab. 1]). This education is permanently supported by the Croatian Medical Journal, CMJ [2], [3], whose editors wrote the textbook “Principles of Research in Medicine”, both in Croatian and English [4]. Medical ethics as an individual mandatory course for sixth-year students was available until 2006/2007 academic year at all medical schools, but was since then discontinued as a formal course at the Schools of Medicine in Zagreb and Rijeka, according to their publicly available programs for 2007/2008.

The CMJ has been promoting the culture of scientific integrity at the national level as a vital component of the research process [2]. An important results of this initiative in 2007 was the creation of the Committee for Ethics in Science and Higher Education, as the national body appointed by the Croatian Parliament, with the aim to promote ethical norms and values in science and higher education [5].


References

1.
Marusic A, Marusic M. Teaching students how to read and write science: a mandatory course on scientific research and communication in medicine. Acad Med. 2003;78(12):1235-1239. DOI: 10.1097/00001888-200312000-00007. External link
2.
Huic M. Fifteenth anniversary of the Croatian Medical Journal: still moving ahead. Croat Med J. 2008;49:1-7. DOI: 10.3325/cmj.2008.1.1. External link
3.
Sambunjak D, Ivanis A. Is there a demand for science communication courses? The experience of the Croatian Medical Journal. Eur Sci Editing. 2005;31:117-119.
4.
Marusic M. Principles of research in medicine. Zagreb: Medicinska naklada; 2008.
5.
Puljak L. Croatia founded a national body for ethics in scince. Sci Eng Ethics. 2007;14(2):191-193. DOI: 10.1007/s11948-007-9006-9. External link