Background: Professionalism and ethics are Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) core competencies, but there is little evidence regarding the effectiveness of ethics education.
Methods: General surgery residents at the University of Pittsburgh completed questionnaires measuring attitudes and knowledge about surgical ethics before and after four 60-minute, faculty-facilitated seminars implementing the American College of Surgeons ethics curriculum.
Results: Most residents experienced ethical challenges at least once every rotation: competition of interests (75%), professional obligations (75%), confidentiality (83%), truth telling (88%), surrogate decision making (91%), and end-of-life issues (100%). The educational intervention increased both knowledge about surgical ethics (P = .013) and confidence in dealing with competition of interests (P = .001), professional obligations (P = .011), truth telling (P = .013), confidentiality (P = .011), end-of-life issues (P = .007), and surrogate decision making (P = .052). Most residents recommended the American College of Surgeons text for future use (84%), considering ethics education a "standard" part of residency training (70%).
Conclusions: Focused instruction using the American College of Surgeons ethics curriculum can effectively improve both knowledge and confidence about surgical ethics.
Published by Elsevier Inc.