Measuring residents ’ moral courage

At the heart of being a physician is caring for those who can ’t care for themselves, so a healthy sense of moral courage is an important quality to nurture among physicians in training. New research has found a promising way to measure moral courage and pointed to differences based on gender, length in residency and religiousness. Interns and residents from two Northeastern academic medical centers were tested in 2013, when researchers employed a pioneering test that called on trainees to anonymously complete a survey about moral courage, empathy and speaking up about patient safety. For the purposes of this experiment, moral courage is defined as the willingness to stand up for and act on one ’s ethical beliefs despite barriers, such as medical hierarchy and concerns about evaluations and career opportunities.“Such courage is critical to physicians’ commitment to act in the best interest of patients,” said the researchers in areport published inAcademic Medicine. Their study is the first known attempt, they said, to measure moral courage in physicians, and their survey model could help educators measure the effectiveness of medical school education in ethics. In its first run, the survey tool revealed some provocative results:Women are less likely than men to act on their moral beliefs.“These findings are consistent with prior research demonstrating gender-based differences of empowerment and confidence for physicians in training,” the report said. “More ...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news