Medical Education
Perspectives of house surgeons of their psychiatry education
As end products of our psychiatry curriculum, house surgeons will have good insight
as to what aspects of their undergraduate psychiatry education is helpful or not
in their daily clinical work. This is an initial stage of a bigger study to evaluate
the curriculum in Psychiatry. One group being looked at are general practitioners.
Anna Fischer, medical student, is working on this study.
Reviewing the evaluation of four year levels of undergraduate psychiatry
students
This study will determine if there is a difference in the quality of teaching and
clinical experience of medical students in various settings (in-patient versus
outpatient, different District Health Boards). Results have been analysed and this
project is being written up.
With Dr Fiona Moir and Dr Shailesh Kumar, we
developed the CALM website, a self-care website with the aim of teaching and informing students about basic principles of positive
psychology. The study group is looking at the usage and feedback of students of
the site. Michael Webb, medical student, is working on this study.
CALM website
For more information , please contact:
Humanities
Academic and professional integrity among medical and pharmacy students
The purpose of the study is to investigate links between incidence, acceptability
and awareness regarding academic and professional integrity. The study aims to build
on existing literature and to further examine the interactions between identifying
participation in academically and professionally dishonest behaviours, assessing
the level of acceptability around honest behaviours, and considering the rationalisations
behind engaging such behaviours. The study will also connect these findings with
the notion of moral reasoning. Principal researcher :
Dr Marcus Henning. Other researchers are:
Dr Sue Hawken,
Sanya Ram,
Dr Fiona Kelly,
Dr Dulcie-Jane Brake and
Dr Phillipa Malpas.
Healthy elderly individuals' support for euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide:
what are their reasons for supporting such practice?
There are very few matters in medicine that provoke as much controversy as the issues
of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Despite growing support for these
practices - both in New Zealand and internationally - we understand very little
about why individuals support euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and the
ethical significance this has for medical practice. This lack of knowledge has important
implications for understanding expectations around medical care at the end of life,
how treatment decisions are reached in conjunction with health professionals, and
in terms of policy regulation and legislation.
This research project has the following goals:
- to ascertain what is understood by the terms ‘euthanasia’, ‘physician-assisted
suicide’, and ‘palliative care’
- to describe the reasons healthy, elderly individuals give in support of euthanasia
and physician-assisted suicide
- to gain a clearer understanding of how their reasons may influence and shape their
views and expectations of medical care at the end of life.
The specific objectives of this research are threefold:
- to assist health professionals better understand the reasons why some healthy, elderly
individuals support euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide
- to assist health professionals understand and practically address the healthcare
needs and concerns of patients near the end of life
- to contribute to rational and informed debate on end of life care, both at the academic
and societal level.
Read more about this
study
The principal researcher is
Dr Phillipa Malpas. Other researchers are
Dr Kay Mitchell and
Mr Malcolm Johnson.
For more information on these studies please contact:
Recent research publications:
- Malpas PJ. (2008). Predictive genetic testing of children for adult onset diseases
and psychological harm. Journal of Medical Ethics, 34:4:275-278.
View this study
- Malpas PJ. (2008). Is genetic information relevantly different to other kinds of
non-genetic information in the life insurance context? Journal of Medical Ethics,
34:7:548-551. View this study
- Malpas PJ. (2009) Do those afflicted with dementia have a moral duty to die? A response
to Baroness Warnock. New Zealand Medical Journal, 122(1296):53-60
View this study
- Malpas PJ. (2009) 203 Days: Film Review. Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology 3(2)
Article 1.
Medical Humanities programme details
A variety of research projects are carried out in the department. A more detailed
list of individual staff research interests can be found on
Medical Humanities website.
