Medical Educators Say Ethics Training Needs Updating

To accommodate 21st century ethical concerns and begin resolving discordant approaches to medical ethics training, scholars from leading medical schools from across the U.S. have issued updated education recommendations, published in the journal Academic Medicine. The “Romanell Report” builds on the “DeCamp Report,” published three decades ago, in order to address contemporary concerns, including cultural diversity, clinician work-life balance and team-based health care coordination. The report also highlights the enduring goals of medical professionalism, citing the need for “sustaining medicine as a public trust, rather than a guild primarily concerned with protecting the economic, political and social power of its members,” said the lead author of the Romanell Report. The new report also expands on the Decamp Report’s list of learning objectives for medical ethics education and addresses new issues including teaching methods, assessment strategies, learning environment and ensuring sufficient support and rewards for faculty. To read more about this, click here.