The evaluation of ethics education in midwifery undergraduate programs in Turkey

Context: Ethics education in midwifery leads to professionalism and good clinical practice. Lack of standards related to ethical education cause differences in implementation. Aims: This study aims to collect comprehensive data about ethics education in undergraduate midwifery programs in Turkey. Settings and Design: In the cross-sectional descriptive study, the sample of study was consisted of faculty members who gave ethics education in midwifery schools and undergraduate final year midwifery students in 29 universities in Turkey between 2017 and 2018. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 17 faculty members and 1138 midwifery students recruited by simple random sampling. Data collection forms consisted of demographic characteristics and questionnaire of knowledge and opinions about the ethics courses. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, frequencies and percentages, and Chi-square were used. Results: It was observed that ethics education was given as a 2-h theoretical course in all midwifery undergraduate schools, and ethics course was compulsory in 87.5% of them. There was statistically significant difference between the views of faculty members and students about necessity of ethics education (P = 0.000), sufficiency of content (P = 0.002), and the expertise of educators (P = 0.000). Conclusions: According to the opinion of participants, there are lacks in ethics education for midwifery students in Turkey. Regarding the difference between opinions of faculty members and students, contents and the aims of the ethics education should be co-determined by the ethics experts, the midwifery teachers, and the midwives.