Educational content of professional ethics in postgraduate dental education.

PURPOSE
Inclusion of proper educational content with respect to professional ethics in dental curricula is an important step to achieve objectives of ethics education especially in postgraduate programs when the time and opportunities for explicit instruction of ethics are limited. This study aimed to find and discuss the topics of ethics and professionalism for dental postgraduate programs.


METHODS
A modified Delphi survey of experts' opinions with three rounds was conducted to establish a consensus on the need to teach professional ethics topics. The topics were identified through a literature review and according to the opinion of the experts. Items scored as highly important by over 80% of the participants in each round of the survey were considered as educational needs.


RESULTS
A total of 154 ethical issues were identified and classified into twenty-nine topical categories to design the initial questionnaire. A consensus was developed on twenty-four ethics and professionalism topics for inclusion in the professional ethics curriculum for all dental postgraduate programs.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of this study, the same educational content in professional ethics is needed for all dental residency programs in all specialties. Most of the topics on which experts reached a consensus to be included in the ethics educational content were related to ethical and professional standards of conduct. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.