A Pilot Narrative Medicine Curriculum in Pharmacy Ethics Education

10.6145/jme.201906_23(2).0005

Ya-Hui Chang；Chao-Feng Lin；Fang-Ju Sun；Wan-Chen Lu；Wei-Ying Lee；Ling-Lang Huang

narrative medicine ； pharmaceutical ethics ； narrative competences

Journal of Medical Education

23卷2期（2019 / 06 / 01）

112 - 124

英文

Purpose: To enhance humanistic care among hospital pharmacists, we introduced narrative medicine into an ethics education course. Through narrative ability training, we hope to strengthen pharmacists' awareness of ethical subjectivity and increase their ability to observe and reflect on ethical situations so as to compensate for the inadequacies of traditional teaching of medical ethics. Methods: The narrative teaching strategy in pharmaceutical ethics has used real clinical ethics cases. The course content includes knowledge of narrative teaching, skills, and demonstrations of ethical inference processes. Before and after the course, 195 pharmacists anonymously filled in questionnaires about ethical inferences in clinical situations, self-evaluated post-course effects, and satisfaction as an evaluation of the course's effectiveness. This study analysis was performed using SPSS. Results: The pharmacy department of four hospital districts administered 250 questionnaires, of which 195 questionnaires were collected, with a questionnaire return rate of 78%. McNemar's test was applied to confirm the relationship between pharmacists' ethical decision-making before and after a course, and the results show that narrative training is beneficial for ethical inferencing. According to the self-assessment, the course had a positive effect on avoiding subjective opinions, making ethical decisions in complex clinical situations, and reducing insecurity during decision-making (p ＜ .001). Conclusion: Combining narrative and traditional ethical principles, pharmacists can make more appropriate ethical judgments in clinical ethical situations, which is helpful for promoting holistic health care.

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