The question schedule from the questionnaire used in this study
| Section one: Approaches to ethics teaching and learning at your medical school |
| 1. What are the main aims of ethics teaching in your medical school? |
| 2. How successful are the aims of ethics teaching, in your opinion? |
| 3. What changes (if any) do you think should be made to these aims and why? |
| 4. Please rate the key recommendations for inclusion within the core ethics curriculum by the UK consensus statement, according to the extent to which you feel your course addresses this topic. |
| 5. How are different teaching/learning methods used to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes relevant to ethics at your medical school? |
| 6. If you were designing a new medical curriculum, what would be your preferred teaching and learning methods for developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes in ethics? |
| 7. If you were designing a new medical curriculum, what would be your preferred assessment methods for knowledge, skills, and attitudes in ethics? |
| 8. Does the ethics teaching and learning strategy change with the stage of your course? Please give details. |
| 9. In your opinion, what is the best stage (or stages) of a medical degree course for learning about ethics and why? |
| 10. What is the balance between critical medical ethics—for example, ethical theory, analysis, argument, and normative medical ethics—for expected behaviour in given situations, including professional and legal obligations, at your medical school? |
| 11. Do you think the balance between critical and normative medical ethics is appropriate? Please explain why/why not. |
| 12. What is the balance between lecture/seminar based teaching and ward/clinic/general practice based teaching? |
| 13. Do you think the balance between classroom based and practice based teaching is appropriate? Please explain why/why not. |
| 14. How is learning about ethical practice integrated with clinical teaching at your school? |
| 15. What is the relationship between learning in medical ethics and medical law at your medical school? |
| 16. What is the relationship between learning in medical ethics and medical humanities at your medical school? |
| 17. What is the organisational structure of ethics teaching within the undergraduate programme? |
| 18. What would be the procedure to introduce a change in the ethics curriculum in the undergraduate course? |
| 19. In the design of your curriculum, please describe the extent to which the educational principles underpinning ethics teaching at your school have been considered. |
| 20. Can you describe any changes that have been made to ethics teaching at your medical school that can be directly attributed to specific recommendations—for example, The Pond Report, 1987; Tomorrow’s Doctors, 1993, 2003, and the consensus statement, 1998? |
| 21. What features of the ethics teaching at your medical school have been particularly successful and why? |
| 22. What features of the ethics teaching at your medical school have been particularly unsuccessful and why? |
| 23. Can you suggest methods by which any unsuccessful aspects could be improved? |
| 24. What concerns do you have about how ethics will be taught in the future? |
| 25. Can you describe any new opportunities on the horizon for teaching in ethics? |
| Section two: Teachers in ethical practice |
| 26. Do you have a full time academic that takes direct responsibility for ensuring that undergraduate medical students learn about ethics at your school and, if so, what is that person’s job title? |
| 27. Who coordinates ethics teaching and learning across the undergraduate programme? |
| 28. Who are the “ethics teaching staff” at your school and how are they funded? Please give as much detail as possible in terms of number, employing body, and funding source. |
| 29. Have there been any gains or losses of ethics teaching posts recently? If so, please outline the circumstances. |
| 30. Approximately what proportion of the “ethics teaching staff” is medically qualified and, of those, approximately what proportion is from primary or secondary care? |
| 31. Approximately what proportion have a formal qualification in ethics? Please give details, if known. |
| 32. Is training provided for the ethics teachers? If so, who organises this, what does it involve, and is it compulsory? |
| Section three: Assessment in ethical practice |
| 33. How do the teachers know that students are developing the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes in ethics during and at the end of the course? |
| 34. What assessment formats are used? Can the ethics component be separately identified from integrated assessment formats? |
| 35. Apart from summative assessment, what opportunities are available to help students to assess their developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes in ethics over time—that is, formative assessment activities? |
| 36. Is it possible for a student to graduate if they fail their ethics assessment? |
| Section four: Your comments |
| 37. Is there anything further that you would like to add? |
| 38. Do you have any comments or feedback about this questionnaire? |
| 39. Are you happy for the involvement of your medical school to be acknowledged in any resulting publication, provided that it will not be possible to link specific information with your institution? |
| 40. Please give your name, position within the medical school, and e-mail address in the space below. This information will enable us to contact you and follow up on any questionnaire responses that were of particular interest. |