Bioethics for Medical Students Using a Novel Concept for Patient Workshops

Introduction Standardized-patient (SP) encounters are widely used in medical education to enhance communication and professionalism. Although well established in residency training, their use in preclinical medical curricula - particularly in bioethics education - has been less explored. Materials and methods This single-institution pilot study involved six one-hour workshops conducted over three weeks at the Medical Simulation Department of the "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, with 154 second-year medical students. Each session comprised two standardized-patient scenarios addressing emotionally complex bioethical situations, followed by structured debriefing. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire, adapted from validated communication-training tools and reviewed by faculty experts for content validity, was used to collect students' and lecturers' perceptions. Data from 122 students and all three lecturers were analyzed using Kendall's correlation, Cubist rule-based regression, and nonparametric ANOVA to identify associations among perception variables. Results Students rated communication, feedback, and session organization most positively. Perceived clinical competence was strongly associated with communication (τ = 0.79), SP feedback (τ = 0.68), and session structure (τ = 0.64). These three variables were also the most informative in the Cubist regression model (R² = 0.77). Nonparametric ANOVA confirmed significant associations between perceived competence and communication (p < .001), SP feedback (p < .001), and session organization (p = .037). Conclusions Students perceived SP workshops as engaging and valuable opportunities to apply ethical reasoning and communication skills in a realistic yet low-risk setting. As this study reflects self-reported perceptions from a single institution, its findings should be interpreted cautiously. Future multicenter and controlled studies combining perception and objective performance metrics are needed to determine the educational impact of SP-based bioethics training.