A Study Of Medical Students’ Moral Imagination And Its Cultivation

While China’s medical career continues to develop for the better,ethical problems associated with the medical field come along with it: doctor-patient relations are tense and medical disputes occur from time to time.since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2019,a number of doctors and nurses have gone against the grain,righteously running and standing at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic,clad in white armor and wholeheartedly serving the people,and the doctor-patient relationship has improved dramatically.Doctors are the dominant force in the doctor-patient relationship,and they are the living force that can fundamentally relieve the relationship between doctors and patients.How can we practice medicine in an "ethical manner" and reduce unnecessary medical disputes? Developing the moral imagination of medical students(who have not yet formally practiced medicine)is a proven way to do so.As a bridge between knowledge construction and practice,moral imagination,through empathy,puts oneself in the shoes of others,and motivates subjects to make more just and reasonable moral judgments and humanistic moral choices,which play an important role in the expansion of moral cognition,improvement of moral sensitivity and cultivation of moral behavior.The study of medical students’ moral imagination can better solve the moral problems in the medical field,avoid moral and ethical problems in medical activities as much as possible,and reconstruct the trust relationship between doctors and patients.This paper defines the concept of moral imagination of medical students on the basis of integrating the literature on moral imagination at home and abroad.On this basis,we conclude that the special characteristics of medical students’ moral imagination are the focus on the fundamental focus of medicine,the emphasis on "thoroughness of consideration," the uncertainty of medical activities,and the reliability of the previous basis of holistic thinking about medical activities.After an in-depth analysis of the characteristics and values of the moral imagination of medical students,it is concluded that the moral imagination of medical students is the ability to be acutely aware of ethical and moral issues in medical activities,to put oneself in the patient’s shoes,to choose the best solution for medical activities based on a comprehensive assessment of the consequences of actions,and to try to break through specific medical dilemmas.The current situation of medical students’ moral imagination was analyzed in the context of a questionnaire survey conducted among clinical students in Liaoning universities,and the aim of the study was to improve medical students’ moral imagination.The survey found that the overall level of medical students’ moral imagination is in the middle to upper level,but there are certain problems in the whole,which are expressed in four aspects: low overall moral awareness,insufficient empathy and sympathy,the ability to imagine consequences and lack of creative thinking.The lack of moral imagination of medical students is the result of both individual and external factors.The imperfect medical humanities education and the complicated social environment are the important causes of the lack of moral imagination of medical students,while the lack of individual moral quality is the main reason for the lack of moral imagination of medical students.Based on this,this paper proposes feasible methods and countermeasures to cultivate medical students’ moral imagination from four aspects: strengthening the self-construction of medical students’ moral imagination cultivation,improving the educational guidance of medical students’ moral imagination cultivation,creating the social environment of medical students’ moral imagination cultivation and improving the institutional guarantee of medical students’ moral imagination cultivation,so that the moral imagination of medical students can play its proper role in their medical activities after practice.The purpose of this study is to propose feasible methods and countermeasures to cultivate medical students’ moral imagination so that they can play a positive role in reshaping the doctor-patient trust relationship.