Ethics and professionalism education during neonatal–perinatal fellowship training in the United States

Objective:the objectives of this study were to determine the perceived adequacy of ethics and professionalism education for neonatal–perinatal fellows in the united states, and to measure confidence of fellows and recent graduates when navigating ethical issues.study design:neonatal–perinatal fellowship directors, fellows and recent graduates were surveyed regarding the quality and type of such education during training, and perceived confidence of fellows/graduates in confronting ethical dilemmas.result:forty-six of 97 directors (47%) and 82 of 444 fellows/graduates (18%) completed the surveys. over 97% of respondents agreed that ethics training is ‘important/very important’. only 63% of directors and 37% of fellows/graduates rated ethics education as ‘excellent/very good’ (p=0.004). while 96% of directors reported teaching of ethics, only 70% of fellows/graduates reported such teaching (p<0.001). teaching methods and their perceived effectiveness varied widely.conclusion:training in ethics and professionalism for fellows is important, yet currently insufficient; a more standardized curriculum may be beneficial to ensure that trainees achieve competency.