{"title":"Medical ethics and compliance amongst physician groups: a self-assessed survey in a hospital in Southeast Nigeria","authors":"Ogbonnia Godfrey Ochonma, Udunma Olive Chjioke, Justin Agorye Ingwu, Chikezie Adolf Nwankwor, Ifeyinwa Henry-Arize","doi":"10.4314/ahs.v23i3.84","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Being a doctor remains a moral enterprise as he is expected to make some medical decisions based on ethical principles during encounter with patients.
 Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge and application of medical ethical principles amongst physician groups in a Hospital in Enugu, Nigeria.
 Methods: This was a cross-sectional self-assessed study conducted amongst medical doctors in five specialty groups in a teaching hospital in Enugu, Nigeria.Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize the items and determine whether significant differences on knowledge and application of medical ethics existed amongst the physician groups in the treatment of patients.
 Findings: Observance and compliance with medical ethical conduct was highest among doctors that were aged 55 years and above. In sex, male doctors had higher ethical conduct compliance than female doctors. Comparing the doctors by rank, medical officers, consultants and senior registrars respectively had the highest ethical conduct.
 Conclusions: Knowledge and practice of medical ethics were mostly deficient among younger Nigerian and female doctors. Remedying the situation will require better curricula both at the undergraduate and post-graduate medical school programmes for doctor trainees. Requiring certification in bioethics for license renewal will also help in resolving and improving the knowledge gap.
 Keywords: Professional; ethical; conduct; doctors; patients; survey; Nigeria; hospital.","PeriodicalId":7853,"journal":{"name":"African Health Sciences","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"African Health Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v23i3.84","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Being a doctor remains a moral enterprise as he is expected to make some medical decisions based on ethical principles during encounter with patients.
Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge and application of medical ethical principles amongst physician groups in a Hospital in Enugu, Nigeria.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional self-assessed study conducted amongst medical doctors in five specialty groups in a teaching hospital in Enugu, Nigeria.Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize the items and determine whether significant differences on knowledge and application of medical ethics existed amongst the physician groups in the treatment of patients.
Findings: Observance and compliance with medical ethical conduct was highest among doctors that were aged 55 years and above. In sex, male doctors had higher ethical conduct compliance than female doctors. Comparing the doctors by rank, medical officers, consultants and senior registrars respectively had the highest ethical conduct.
Conclusions: Knowledge and practice of medical ethics were mostly deficient among younger Nigerian and female doctors. Remedying the situation will require better curricula both at the undergraduate and post-graduate medical school programmes for doctor trainees. Requiring certification in bioethics for license renewal will also help in resolving and improving the knowledge gap.
Keywords: Professional; ethical; conduct; doctors; patients; survey; Nigeria; hospital.
期刊介绍:
The African Health Sciences is an internationally refereed journal publishing original articles on research, clinical practice, public health, policy, planning, implementation and evaluation, in the health and related sciences relevant to Africa and the tropics. Its objectives are to: Advocate for and promote the growth of reading culture in sub Saharan Africa; Provide a high quality journal in which health and policy and other researchers and practitioners in the region can and world wide, can publish their work; Promote relevant health system research and publication in the region including alternative means of health care financing, the burden of and solution of health problems in marginalized urban and rural communities amongst the displaced and others affected by conflict; Promote research and the systematic collection and collation and publication of data on diseases and conditions of equity and influence; Promote development of evidence-based policies and guidelines for clinical, public health and other practitioners. African Health Sciences acknowledges support provided by the African Health Journals Partnership Project that is funded by the US National Institutes of Health (through the National Library of Medicine and the Fogarty International Center) and facilitated by the Council of Science Editors.