The Effect of Students' Perceptions on Relationship between Professors and Patients on Their Professional Ethics in Birjand University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Professional ethics is defined as one of the necessities in the medical profession; this way, it can be conceptualized and integrated for students in the form of teachers’ relationship to others. Effective communication with the patient is one of the important interactions of educational authorities. In view of that, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of students' perception of the relationship between faculty members and patients on their professional ethics in Birjand University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional type. The population included medical students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2018. In this study, 151 subjects were sampled using Morgan table and stratified-random sampling method (based on educational grade). Data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially (correlation & multiple regressions. Results: Findings revealed that the relationship between faculty members and the patient can predict the professional ethics of the students in education and research (R2 = 0.09, P <0.01) as well as their relationship with colleagues (R2 = 0.04, P <0.01). Conclusion: Seeing as the relationship between the faculty members and the patient affects the development of professional ethics of medical students, the interaction of the faculty with other people is one of the important issues affecting the development of professional ethics of students; accordingly, planning to improve the relationship between teachers and the patient through running workshops and in-service training courses seems indispensable.