Talat Ahmed.
Ethics for medical teachers.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;2(4):232-8.

Objective: To determine the perception of common qualities of an ethical teacher among the four groups (private & public medical students and teachers), and compare the difference of opinion of students and teachers of private and public medical colleges by formulating a proforma consisting of 31 (thirty one) carefully chosen statements encountered often in the teaching institutes, in order to assess the response of the teachers and the students as `ethical` or `unethical`. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was done. Students and teachers of Shifa College of Medicine (private), and Rawalpindi Medical College (public) participated in this study. About 365 subjects were picked by non probability purposive technique. Sample size was calculated using Epi-info 6.0. Results: Majority agreed as unethical, with no significant difference among groups, over `provoking a student to file a complaint against another teacher` (90%), `making students believe that another teacher is not a good teacher or evaluator` (93%) and `breaching the confidentiality of institute or department` (88%). There was a disagreement among teachers and students over `snubbing students on coming late into a class` (32%, 57%. p 0.000 as unethical respectively). About `taking the time of teaching for preaching ethicslreligion/irrelevant stories/jokes`, there was a significant difference (p 0.006) in opinion between the students of private (54%) and public (38%) medical colleges who responded as unethical. Faculty of private medical college differs in opinion from faculty of public medical college over `snubbing students for not answering the questions in class` (46%, 72%; p 0.018), `expelling students out of class for misbehaving` (66%, 36%; p 0.010). Conclusion: It is for the educators to realize that their most minor gestures or attitude during day-to-day interactions may lead to a profound and disturbing impression on their students. A teacher has great influence over students. Students observe and copy what their teacher does and his/her role modeling can be a gateway to a student`s character building.

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