A New Medical Simulation Approach to Teaching Clinical Ethics for Medical Students

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating a new simulation-based ethics education model designed to improve medical students knowledge, moral reasoning, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities. The study involves developing faculty competence, ethics courses, and clinical case scenarios with interdisciplinary experts. Medical students will be randomly assigned to either simulated ethical clinical situations or workshops discussing ethical case scenarios to compare educational outcomes. Participants will be divided into two groups one experiencing a simulated clinical ethical situation with simulation patients as the intervention group, and the other attending workshops discussing clinical ethical case scenarios as the control group. Faculty development and curriculum planning will support these interventions. The study will run over about two years, during which various instruments and strategies will be applied to assess the education models effectiveness. Throughout the study, participants will complete assessments such as the Defining Issues Test, Problem Identification Test, knowledge tests, and clinical ethical decision-making exams. Additional measures include an Objective Structured Clinical Examination and satisfaction questionnaires. These assessments aim to evaluate students ethical reasoning and communication skills. The study is sponsored by Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital and includes follow-up until study completion, averaging two years.

Clinical Learning Through Extended Immersion in Medical Simulation (CLEIMS)-A New Approach to Teaching Clinical Ethics