Ethics and Human Behaviour

- Two Topics for Medical Engineering Students

LILIANA ROGOZEA
ANGELA REPANOVICI
LUCIANA CRISTEA
MIHAELA BARITZ
ROXANA MICLAUS
ALINA PASCU
Transilvania University of Brasov
Eroilor 29, Brasov
ROMANIA
r_liliana@unitbv.ro http://www.unitbv.ro

Abstract: The paper attempts a non technical approach at the importance of studying Ethics and Behavioural sciences in the medical
engineering students’ curriculum. This perspective is the result of the Medicine and Mechanical engineering teachers’ experience,
who is involved in the development of this program.

Key Words: behaviour, communication, ethics, curriculum, biomedical engineering education

1. Introduction for improving the quality of European higher education

There is a common law among engineers, stipulating
that, in their education, study connected with techniques
and mathematics is very important. It is denied also the
role of the study upon the humanist disciplines, usually
included in the Medicine curriculum as Behavioural
science and Ethics.
Technical modern university studies are often more and
more involved in product development, in the
partnership of engineering and different fields aiming at
building multidisciplinary partnerships. [9, 13]
The development of Romanian medicine and its
alignment to modern techniques required the design of
new study programs and new faculties in Romania, too.
These novelties have the purpose to train professionals
able both to restore existing machineries and hardware,
and especially to design and expand new materials and
apparatuses usable in modern medicine.
2. Problem Formulation
2.1. European content
During the last years, the Romanian high level teaching
system suffered a lot of changes connected to the trend
implemented by the Common Declaration of the
Ministries of Education of the European countries,
signed in Bologna in July 1999. Romania consented to
this declaration, which provides a high compatibility and
possibility of comparison between different high level
educations systems.
Bologna settlements have ruled upon the development of
specialisations for the last few years. A reform agenda
was promoted at Lisbon: pushing for excellence in
research & innovation, concentration & selectivity
regarding European aria of research - ERA (2000).
The European level development is also accorded to
Berlin, Bergen and London documents (2003-2007). In
2000 in Lisbon, the European Council declared its
purpose for the European Union: “The Union must
become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge
based economy in the world, capable of sustainable
economic growth with more and better jobs and greater
social cohesion”. [8, 10]
It has been estimated that by 2010 almost half of new
jobs created will require tertiary level education and
almost 40% upper secondary education.
The European Commission recognizes that meeting the
Lisbon challenge requires rethinking education and
training: how and where people learn; the roles of
learners and those who support them, and the tools that
will promote optimal learning. It is our view that a
radical re-thinking of education and training will mean
an end to the ‘compartmentalisation’ of learning.
The knowledge society will recognise the organic link
between the learning citizen, the learning organisation
and the learning territory: an open system of learning
that embraces formal and informal, professional and
cultural learning in the same dynamic.
2.2. The national context
Curriculum development at national level evolves
according to a national system of indicators, both the
educational system and the scientific research
development. The education is correlated to quality
evaluation indicators of ARACIS (Romanian Agency of
Research Accrediting in Higher Education). The
scientific research is settled by the National Strategy of
Research Promotion and evaluated by Quality Indicators
of Activity in Higher Education (settled by IC6-
Research, Government Resolution 551/2007 for
approving the criteria and standards, the Methodology of
evaluation and certifying the capacity of research-
development activities in the research-development units
and institutions and accrediting the national interest
units of the research-development system).
2.3. The local context
Transilvania University of Brasov is one of the largest
universities in Romania. It is an autonomous State
institution that has the right and the obligation to create
its own regulations, structure, competence and selection
processes outlined by the Academic Board.
The medium and long term development strategy of the
Transilvania University of Brasov is based on the
academic objectives stated in the University Charter,
oriented towards the following fields of activity:
teaching, scientific research, postgraduate training, inter-
university co-operation, university deontology, social
protection of the university community members,
development and upgrading of the material base.
Development of a system to assure the quality
based both on internal and external evaluation;
Raising the licensed specialists’ degree of
insertion in labour market;
The University integration in the local community in
the purpose of the university integration as active
member in civic society.
3. The development of the Medical
Engineering Program
This program was born as an open gate to a modern
profession, which the European labour market had been
asking for. This ultramodern profession represents the
interface of medical engineering, mechatronic
engineering, electric engineering, computer science and
engineering and medicine as a profession responsible for
the most valuable treasure as it is the health of the
human beings. [3]
The students following this program of study have a lot
of possibilities to express themselves and to gain fame
as they have both engineering knowledge and medical
knowledge enough to understand better the human body
and to develop the engineering systems which has
become a precious help today.
Certainly, nobody thinks in these days that medicine is
an apostolic profession based on the physician’s
supernatural capacities and the physician is now or will
be a simple user, driver or manipulator of medical
machines.
In this context, we consider that the collaboration and
partnership between these two professions and the
design and development of the team physician-engineer
since the period of the university studies is more and
more required.

Fig.1.
The reformation required in education is correlated with
the following objectives in the perspective of
Transilvania University:
Integrated development correlated to the reality of
three cycles of study: licence, master, doctorate and
continuous training (fig.1);
Transparency and equivalence of qualification all
around Europe;
Experience exchange between different European
areas and the possibility to establish partnerships
between students-future specialists, too; Fig.2a
Attention focused on student:
ECTS used to measure the students’ scientific
development not only as method of knowledge
recognition;
Building a quality criteria system for admission in
a superior cycle of study;

Fig.2b.
Building the very high level laboratories for study and
research (fig.2a and 2b) is the frame that certainly
ensures the adequate environment for study, training and
technical preparation of future specialists in the field. [1]
4. New subjects implemented into the
curriculum of Medical Engineering
The objectives for implementation into the curriculum of
Medical Engineering for themes like Ethics and
Behavioural Sciences are focused on helping students to
understand better the complexity of the human being, to
ensure the possibility of development of those
apparatuses and machines which are capable to increase
the patients’ comfort level and especially to avoid their
participation to experiments that do not comply with the
rules and regulations of deontology.
Ethics – major importance subject of study
The complex development of this subject requires
containing both magisterial lectures (which theoretically
explain issues as professional secret, human wrights,
ethics of scientific writing, ethics of scientific
experiments and research) and practical studies (of
studies upon ethical cases which the students have to
discuss guided by specialised teachers). [6, 12]
Fig.3.
A very important subject also should be connected to the
use of the medical apparatuses and machines in different
situations as transplant, cloning, endoscopies, etc. and
why not in situation of building simulators for the future
physicians’ training. The times when physicians
practiced on their patients already ended, this is why
today training the abilities of doctors and nurses has to
be done using simulators.
To this purpose, the role of engineering professionals is
to design such kind of simulators and to decrease the
tendency of exercising on patients the manoeuvres
which are not sure and absolutely without risk).
Ethically speaking, the licensed engineers in Medical
Engineering must understand the most important ethical
issues linked with medical gestures and manoeuvres and
to develop especially that projects which decrease the
risk of malpraxis (medical error) or are potentially life
savers and also require as accessible financial resources
as possible.
Behavioral Sciences –A new subject offers a new
approach and perspective of Medical engineering
New technologies evolution raises the risk of
transforming the human relationships from direct,
unmediated relations into indirect, mediated by internet
relations and also the risk of transforming the physician
into a professional addicted to machines.
Frequently, the physician is seen as a simple beneficiary
and the engineer as a simple apparatus producer,
preconception that splits the two connected professions.
This rupture could be fixed if both professional
categories remembered that they are focused on people,
and the human being represents a unique, unrepeatable
person, with particularly social capacity.
These are the reasons why it is very important both to
explore the modern ways of communication and
investigation and to ensure a proper human relation
between physician and patient. [5, 11]
Easy access to information which doesn’t presume a
hard work of individual searching, but the acquisition of
those tools and abilities selected by others, has both a
beneficent effect due to time saving, and a maleficent
one, linked to loosing the interest in realizing a good
documentation. [4, 6]
The medical engineer specialist’s role is to create
technical tools to the purpose of assuring good medical
staff - patient relationship in all possible situations (for
example when there is a barrier linked with geographical
conditions), to create the possibilities to increase the
patient’s comfort patient and to substitute his affected
fundamental needs [2]
At the same time Behavioural Sciences could ensure a
modern approach of the engineer’s role and place in the
development of human society in which the technique
couldn’t represent an aim by itself.

Fig.4.
A study realised in Transilvania University of Brasov
revealed that the internet represents an important tool of
communication. Analyzing their concern regarding the
internet we find out that 89% think that the internet has
a positive effect on their life (fig.5).
Fig.5.
In this context, the introduction of these objects
mediating direct communication into the curriculum is
an absolute requirement.
5. Conclusions
The medical engineering students’ increasing interest for
less technical subjects could be ensured through offering
necessary motivations and increasing the level of
responsibility since university time.
Also, the two suggested subjects to be included into the
curriculum could offer a less traditional approach from the
pedagogical point of view and could increase the level of
interest in the medical engineering specialisation.
As others researchers remarked, behavioural changes
among students are linked especially to their behavioural
motivation. This is the principal reason why including
into curriculum the study of Ethics and Behavioural
Sciences could represent a new approach of this
profession.
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