Teaching and learning ethics and bioethics in Latin American medical education

Abstract

The teaching of Medical Ethics and Bioethics has represented a priority need since the birth of the profession and the creation of medical schools, for that reason it is desired to know how this particular academic subject is currently developed in Latin American universities. This bibliographic review investigates the contents, teaching strategies, as well as the evaluation of results in medical ethics and bioethics courses in Latin American schools. The methodology used was a documentary research, where a search for articles was carried out through medical information search engines with the keywords: medical ethics, bioethics, medical teaching, Latin America. The results of this research show that most Latin American medical schools present medical ethics courses with contents based on international models dictated by the International Medical Association, UNESCO and complemented with the medical ethics codes and laws that each country has adopted. The courses are offered in the initial years of the career and there is no evidence of curricular complements in higher years or in clinical practice. An active didactic strategy is mainly used, promoting the student’s protagonism with diverse teaching and learning techniques where discussion to reach agreements is the integrative axis. A traditional content evaluation is maintained with written tests with emphasis on cognitive competence to determine course approval.