Morally Incorrect Incidents in the Teacher-Student Relationship in Medical Education

pp 423-428

Abstract

Background
The relationship teacher-student might determine the link between the student and the patient. Currently, this relation-
ship has been spoilt by causes typical of the institution and of the education in general, but also by the lack of honesty among students and by teachers’ abuse. The students may consider abuse as a morally incorrect incident, but they may take into account other actions.

Objective
To analyze which incidents are considered morally incorrect by final year medical students.

Material and Methods
A semi-structured survey was conducted on students of the final year of the School of Medicine, with closed items (variables: student’s gender and age; aspects: teacher’s position and gender, cycle and instance) and an opened item: reporting the incident. Categories were constructed for the latter item. The significance of the relation between variables and aspects was analyzed using the chi square test (p ≤0.05).

Results
The survey was responded by 80 students; 6 did not report any incident. Average age was 26.83 years (MSE 0.47); 59.4% were women. The greatest number of incidents occurred during the clinical cycle, in oral examinations and with male professors. We found a significant relation between student’s age and teacher ́s gender on the one hand, and cycle (basic and clinical) and instance (teaching-learning and evaluation) on the other. Abuse and unfair evaluation criteria were the categories most frequently mentioned.

Conclusions
Unlike the studies analyzing abuse, this study asked the students about a general concept; however, abuse was the morally incorrect incident most reported, together with unfair evaluation criteria. These aspects show the lack of moral commitments among teachers: respect and justice.