Ethics in the clinic: a comparison of two Dutch teaching programmes (original) (raw)

This paper compares ethics programmes in clinical edu cation in two medical schools in the Netherlands. Ethics education in the University of Maastricht is case ori ented, whereas the emphasis in ethics teaching in the Catholic University of Nijmegen is focused on the meth ods of ethics and moral reasoning. The general objec tives, format and evaluation are discussed. Both pro grammes assume that in clinical decision-making normative and technical issues are intertwined; if a nor mative dimension is intrinsic to medical practice itself, students should learn during clinical training how to explicate and evaluate the moral quandaries of their pro fession. The positive characteristics of the Maastricht programme (student-centred approach, relevant cases, team-teaching of ethicist and clinician), if combined with those of the Nijmegen programme (a coherent theo retical framework and method for case analysis and inter pretation), would create a new, powerful model for clini cal ethics teaching. In a recent report such a model is advocated for all Dutch medical schools.