Decision-making in the face of bioethical conflict and training in Dentistry

Abstract

This study aims to understand the relationship between conceptions of ethics and decision making in situations of bioethical conflict in practices of first-year dentistry students. Holistic case study with a qualitative approach was carried out, in two steps: in the first, 62 participants answered an online form with two questions about conceptions of ethics; in the second, 59 deliberated on two health situations with bioethical conflict. Discursive textual analysis was performed. Results show that students understand ethics as individual guidance in social and profession conduct. In training, students’ restricted conceptions of ethics are amplified in the decision-making exercises in the face of bioethical conflicts. The role of singular contexts is an element for the decision-making in learning that includes respect for life and not just the treatment of disease. The topic of bioethics, thus transversalized in the formative process, values people-centered care.