Resumen:
The main objective of this study was to design a new tool to explore the
perception of professionally-related ethical values in Health Sciences
undergraduate students. For this purpose, 24 conversational interviews, as
well as an extensive literature review, were initially employed. Then, five
ethical values were selected: respect for the patient, altruism, empathy,
responsibility for my actions, and lifelong learning. Next, twenty cases with
ethical dilemmas were created with protagonists pertaining to four degrees
in the Health Sciences: Nursing, Dentistry, Physical Therapy, and Medicine.
These cases were examined by professionals from these fields and presented
to a sample of students to analyze their functioning. Our results indicate that
the cases are easy to understand as most cases were identified correctly.
Interestingly, students reported “respect for the patient” as the most
important ethical value. The least important value was “altruism.” This new
tool adds a practical perspective based on clinical cases with real-life
dilemmas. Further studies are needed to continue exploring this topic.