THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TRAINING IN MEDICAL ETHICS CONSENSUS-BUILDING METHOD WITH SPATIOTEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE.

Today, in Japan, education in medical ethics is urgent for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for doctors, nurses, and medical staffs; however, each institution and hospital determines its own method of ethics training, and a comprehensive and consistent system has not been established yet. This study discusses the nature of the theory and practice employed by the author, as a practitioner, an educator, and a researcher of medical ethics, in providing ethics training in medical institutions and hospitals since 2005. The method, which is based on theory and practice, is characterized by a spatiotemporal perspective, that is, it considers the medical space where the patients are diagnosed and treated (space) and every stage in the patient's lifecycle (time). Therefore, medical ethics training should consist of: 1) understanding concepts and theories essential to medical ethics, 2) fostering stakeholders' ability to examine ethical issues from a spatiotemporal perspective, and; 3) improving the skills of those responsible for resolving ethical issues.