ABSTRACT
Medical education is required to continuously adapt its curriculum guidelines according to social demands. Raising the theme of ethical problems in medical education entails using a possible artifice to contribute toward understanding the diverse needs of the Brazilian population. The objective of this study is to analyze the ethical problems experienced by the students and professors of the University of Vale do Itajaí (Univali) medical course. This is a qualitative study. The study participants were students from the 1st to 7th semesters of the medical course and the institution’s teachers. Data were collected through focus groups with the students and a collective interview with the teachers. The collected data were coded and categorized for content analysis. The students think that tackling ethical problems in medical education equates to the need to learn to deal with themselves and spread debate and study of ethics at the medical school. The teachers believe that ethical problems should be addressed through the following actions: (1) empowering the students to stand up to repressive forces; (2) strengthening collective decision-making practices within institutional spaces; (3) continuing teacher training; (4) giving value to teachers with a foundation based on planning and collective actions and linked to the National Curricular Guidelines of the medical course. The identification of knowledge about the subject reflects the inseparable relationship between the knowledge of teachers and students and the institutionalization of medical education in relation to ethical problems. These are present throughout all the academic periods of the medical course analyzed, although they are not always cited or visible, and are therefore, directly or indirectly, cross curricular disciplines and spaces of practices. The research participants identify the incongruities in the training with discrepancies between theory and practice, from teacher-student relations to the relations between the institution and teacher/student.
Ethics; Medical Education; Medical Students