Unethical behavior and professionalism among medical students in a private medical university in Malaysia

BACKGROUND

Ethical behavior and professionalism is an ideal characteristic required of medical students and included as 'must achieve' and critical aspect of medical students' curriculum. This study proposes to determine the perceived unethical and unprofessional behavior among medical students in a private medical university from year 1 to year 5 of the medical curriculum.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among year 1 to year 5 medical students in a private medical university. A self-administered questionnaire was used with the 3 major domains of professionalism and ethics i.e. discipline plagiarism and cheating.

RESULTS

A total of 464 respondents responded to the survey and they included medical students from year 1 and year 2 (pre-clinical) and years 3-5 (clinical years). Majority of the students, 275 (59.2%) answered that they had not seen any form of unethical behavior among other students. The females seem to have a larger number 172(63%) among the same gender compared to the males. Majority 352 (75%) of them had not heard of the 'Code of Professional Conduct by the Malaysian Medical Council'. About fifty three (53.1%) of the students answered that the training was sufficient.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that the perception of unethical behavior was 58.8% in the 1st year (pre-clinical) and it increased to 65.2% in the 5th year (clinical). The 3 main discipline issues were students do not show interest in class (mean 2.9/4), they are rude to other students (mean 2.8/4) and talking during class (mean 2.6/4). Despite the existence of unethical behavior among the students majority of them (71.7%) claimed that they had adequate training in ethics and professionalism. It is proposed that not only the teaching of ethics and professionalism be reviewed but an assessment strategy be introduced to strengthen the importance of professionalism and ethics.

Carbon monoxide poisoning from gas water heater installed and operated in the bathroom

Two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning involving 3 victims occurred in Cameron Highlands in the months of August and September 1995. Two of the victims were found dead in the bathrooms where they were taking a bath while the other one survived. Blood toxicology from the post mortems revealed high levels of carbon monoxide. The only significant source of carbon monoxide in both cases were the gas water heaters which were installed in the bathrooms. A multigas detector was used to monitor the level of carbon monoxide in one of the bathrooms and carbon monoxide was found to be produced to 1200 ppm in 16 minutes during operation of the heater. Carbon monoxide poisoning from gas water heaters installed in bathroom is a significant hazard.

Successful outcome following a disrupted Björk-Shiley prosthetic mitral valve

This report describes an early diagnosis and successful correction of a disrupted "improved" Björk-Shiley prosthetic valve in the mitral position. The role of 2-Dimensional echocardiography in the diagnosis is emphasized.

Pediculosis among rural school children in Kelang, Selangor, Malaysia and their susceptibility to malathion, carbaryl, perigen and kerosene

A HIGH prevalence rate (41.5%) for head louse infestation has been recorded among rural school-children in Selangor, Malaysia. Distribu tion of the ecto-parasite among the three main ethnic groups (Indians 51.8%, Malays 42%, and Chinese 27.3%) was also studied. The prevalence rate de pended on the length of hair and sex of the person involved.

Treatment with 0.2% and 0.5% Malathion resulted in immediate success rate of 79.2% and 91.5%. Treatment with Carbaryl resulted in an immediate success rate of 100% at dosages of 0.6% and above.

Perigen applied at a dosage of 0.1% gave an immediate success rate of 97.6% whereas kerosene applied undiluted showed a success rate of 87.5%. No side reactions were recorded with any of the insecti cides used, with the exception of kerosene.