Bioethics in COVID-19 times: Undergraduate Medical student’s perspective

Abstract

Aim: To study the student’s perspectives about the bioethical issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of the feedback form received following the conduct of online webinar titled “Bioethics during COVID 19 times”, from the undergraduate medical students. The feedback was in the form of a questionnaire, which consisted of three open ended questions and three Likert scale questions regarding bioethical challenges faced by the students. The responses were then analyzed for each category of questions. Results: More than 300 undergraduate medical students participated in the webinar & 213 responded for the feedback. Out of the 213 responses on various issues concerning medical profession, 62% strongly agreed that medical professionals are putting in their best efforts to treat and protect people during COVID-19 pandemic. 22% of the students were of the view that while treating SARS CoV2 positive patients, younger patients must be preferentially treated over aged patients, but 38% of the participants said it was unethical. 57% of the students said it was not a good strategy to reduce the testing frequency as a strategy to reduce the number of cases. Students were also aware of many bioethical issues during pandemic like the origin of SARS CoV2 virus, handling of pandemic by World Health Organization, Central and State governments, issues of shortage of personal protective equipments, shortage of essential drugs and medical equipments in India, the plight of rural masses for the want of basic health care with additional burden posed by the pandemic. A significant outcome of this study was, majority of the students were of the view that, including bioethical training in curriculum would help in inculcating empathy & enable them to interact with patients compassionately. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic has affected all rungs of the society including the student population. Medical undergraduate students are not an exception to this. They have given an insight to various Bio-ethical challenges faced by them& these need to be addressed by incorporating ethical training in the curriculum, empowering the future graduates to be better professionals.