Abstract
This study set out to examine the characteristics and consciousness of biomedical ethics among dental hygiene and nursing students and provide basic data for the education of biomedical ethics in the department of dental hygiene. The subjects include 158 and 128 students in the dental hygiene and nursing departments, respectively, at a university in Gyeongnam. Collected data was analyzed with the SPSS 12.0 program. 1. The analysis results show that the dental hygiene and nursing students scored mean 2.72 and 2.65 points in biomedical ethics consciousness, respectively, with statistical significance(p<.000). 2. In the subareas of biomedical ethics, the two groups showed the highest and lowest level of consciousness in organ transplant and euthanasia, respectively. 3. The two groups had differences in characteristics related to biomedical ethics by the major such as ethical values(p<.05), experiences with biomedical ethics education(p<.01), time of biomedical ethics education(p<.001), sources of information and knowledge about biomedical ethics(p<.01), experiences with conflicts in biomedical ethics(p<.000), and willingness to participate in education(p<.05). 4. The nursing students recorded higher biomedical ethics consciousness than the dental hygiene students with no statistically significant differences between them. Biomedical ethics consciousness had positive correlations with ethical values(r=.122) and experiences with biomedical ethics education(r=.356). Based on these findings, the study proposed the development of educational content for biomedical ethics consciousness and research on its effectiveness to help dental hygiene students form desirable biomedical ethics consciousness.
