Trial reportBMC medical ethics2017
Principle-based structured case discussions: do they foster moral competence in medical students? - A pilot study.
Trial report in BMC medical ethics, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Constructing knowledge and moral skills through hospital clown interventions: a qualitative study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Article
- Self-perceived moral competence among healthcare students in Slovakia: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Peer‑led bioethics education in clinical rotations: Three generalisable lessons from a CFIR‑informed implementation case study.PloS one · 2026Article
- Moral reasoning skills: what they are and how they can be furthered in health professions education.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Assessing moral competence in medical and psychology students: effects on anxiety and test duration in online versus paper-based testing.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Investigating the Impact of Scenario-Based Moral Concepts Training on the Professional Moral Courage of Nursing Students: A Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Health science reports · 2025Article
- The gap in medical education: the missing element of digital health economics education - a prospective cross-sectional pilot study.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Moral competency of students at a german medical school - A longitudinal survey.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Enhancing patient safety by integrating ethical dimensions to Critical Incident Reporting Systems.BMC medical ethics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecent findings suggest that medical students' moral competence decreases throughout medical school. This pilot study gives preliminary insights into the effects of two educational interventions in ethics classes on moral competence among medical students in Munich, Germany.
methodsBetween 2012 and 2013, medical students were tested using Lind's Moral Competence Test (MCT) prior to and after completing different ethics classes. The experimental group (EG, N = 76) participated in principle-based structured case discussions (PBSCDs) and was compared with a control group with theory-based case discussions (TBCDs) (CG, N = 55). The pre/post C-scores were compared using a Wilcoxon Test, ANOVA and effect-size calculation.
resultsThe C-score improved by around 3.2 C-points in the EG, and by 0.2 C-points in the CG. The mean C-score difference was not statistically significant for the EG (P = 0.14) or between the two groups (P = 0.34). There was no statistical significance for the teachers' influence (P = 0.54) on C-score. In both groups, students with below-average (M = 29.1) C-scores improved and students with above-average C-scores regressed. The increase of the C-Index was greater in the EG than in the CG. The absolute effect-size of the EG compared with the CG was 3.0 C-points, indicating a relevant effect.
conclusionTeaching ethics with PBSCDs did not provide a statistically significant influence on students' moral competence, compared with TBCDs. Yet, the effect size suggests that PBSCDs may improve moral competence among medical students more effectively. Further research with larger and completely randomized samples is needed to gain definite explanations for the results.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.