The Development of Evaluation Method for Bioethics Education in Japan.

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The Development of An Evaluation Method for Bioethics Education in JapanAs biothics education has gradually evolved at universities as well as medical schools in Japan, there is a great need for a reliable program evaluation strategy. However, objective and quantitative evaluation instruments have not been developed. The purposes of this research are 1) to develop a new test battery to evaluate bioethics education ; 2) to investigate chronological changes of ethical problem identification ability and moral reasoning in medical and nursing students and graduates.According to J.Rest, the process of ethical problem solving can be divided into 4 steps : problem identification ; reasoning ; judgment ; and action. In this research, the first two steps were focused on. As to the problem identification, a new questionnaire has been developed (Problem Identification Test). referring to the preceding study by Herbert et al. The questionnaire submits three vignettes to examinees and asks them to … More list all the ethical issues related to each case. Each vignette was scored as to the number of issues identified and this number is regarded as the problem identification ability. The reliability and validity of this questionnaire were assessed. As for moral reasoning, two vignettes from the Japanese version of Rest's Defining lssues Test (DIT) was used.This test battery was administered to students and graduates of one medical school (1st to 6th year students and residents ; N=831) and one nursing school (1st to 3rd year students and graduates ; N=320). Problem identification ability in the nurse samples increased according to the grade, while the medical samples showed highest identification ability at the 3rd and 4th year. In DIT,no significant changes were observed in the moral developmental stages, while the decision on whether or not to give euthanasia drug to a terminal cancer patient dramatically decreased when the grade increased.Finally, as an intervention study, pre and post sampling for the students who took a 2 month bioethics course was performed. Problem identification ability was significantly higher in the post samples, while no change was observed in their moral reasoning. Less