MODEL CURRICULA IN PUBLIC-HEALTH ETHICS

The provision of ethics instruction through formal courses and other a venues is a cornerstone of professional ethics in public health. Recen t developments include the implementation of innovative ethics curricu la in public health training programs in the United States and other c ountries, numerous ethics workshops and symposia at national and inter national public health meetings, and increasing opportunities for publ ic health professionals to obtain continuing education on ethics.(1-4) Another recent development has been the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandate for extramural research training programs to provide in struction on scientific integrity and ethical principles in research t o trainees.(5,6) Despite the recent upsurge of interest in the inclusi on of ethics instruction in public health curricula, schools of public health and other institutions that train public health professionals vary greatly in the depth of their attention to ethics. Moreover, exis ting ethics curricula in public health vary considerably in their form and content, even within individual disciplines such as epidemiology. (2,4,7) Although innovation and creativity in teaching methods are des irable, there are currently no national standards for adequate instruc tion in public health ethics. The thesis of this article is that schoo ls of public health should provide basic instruction in ethics that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of public health students, an d that model curricula in public health ethics are needed to assure th is goal. Such curricula should have clearly specified and evaluable le arning objectives and should take into account the diversity of public health students, disciplines, and graduate education programs. In the discussion that follows, a rationale for teaching public health ethic s is provided along with some responses to possible questions.