A medical ethics project for third-year medical students.

During the 1987-1988 academic year, each of the third-year students at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia were asked to prepare a case study that involved ethical issues, drawn from a clinical experience. Instructions for the studies included a brief description of ethical principles and a format for including needed information about the patient, the family, and the caregivers. A study was made of the quality of these case studies, the types of ethical issues raised, and some attitudes expressed in them. Follow-up discussion groups with faculty leaders, using these case studies, are described.