Medical ethics programs in family practice residencies.

Ethics is an integral part of medical practice and needs explicit attention in family practice residency training programs. One difficulty, however, in developing a medical ethics program in a family practice residency is the lack of information about ethics programs and their strengths and weaknesses. This report provides baseline data on what is being done in 182 family medicine residencies throughout the country. It contains demographic data on locale, size, and age of residency and the perceptions of program directors and chief residents as to the usefulness of such programs, the most frequently discussed issues, the staffing, the amount of curriculum time allocated, and the format employed. Differences of opinion between the two groups are reported.