Development of Strategies for Advancement of Medical Ethics Education in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Medical ethics is an analytical attempt that deals with various aspects of ethical decision making in medicine. According to the importance and goals of medical ethics, this study is an endeavor to evaluate strengths and weaknesses (internal factors) as well as opportunities and threats to medical ethics education (external factors) using SWOT (Strengths,Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) model and represent helpful strategies in medical ethics education in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this cross sectional study, the opinions of 48 faculty members of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in year 2011 were studied. After collecting the opinions, each factor was weighed (level of importance) and ranked and finally the strategies were formulated in SWOT model. Results: Evaluating internal factors of strength points, it was deriven that the most importance level (weight) belongs to “having rich Islamic and historical resources on medical ethics” with the weight of 0.10 and the grade of 2.9. Among weekness points, the top importance belonged to “using traditional methods for medical ethics education” with weight of 0.12 and ranking of 2.6. Furthermore, the sum of grades in analysis table was 2.85 for internal factors and 2.87 for external factors. The results showed that the first three priorities of formulated strategies were “inter-disciplinary medical ethics education by medical ethics and clinical sciences teachers”, “teaching medical ethics in clinical settings”, and “employing new methods in medical ethics education”, respectively. Conclusion:The analysis of internal and external factors in medical ethics education in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences which studies the weekness and strength points, opportunities, and threats to medical ethics education shows that the faculty reaction to these factors is lower than medium. On the other hand, the validity of strategies for medical ethics education development using SWOT model is high, so these strategies can play an important role in strategic planning of medical ethics education in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.