“Values-specific,” rather than “role-specific,” ethics education will benefit public health graduate programs

Typically, ethics courses in graduate programs in public health are organized by the impact that ethical principles have on the various roles that the students may have in their careers: researcher, administrator, professional, social activist. Organizing ethics education under this “role-specific” approach has the advantage of making immediately apparent to students the potential relevance of moral issues to their future careers. It also has the virtue of being familiar. However, organizing this educational material primarily by the ethical values or principles involved has a number of advantages. This “values-specific” approach can: (1) Create a basis for dialogue among the graduate program's stakeholders, with which any good ethical education effort should begin. (2) Make readily evident robust and easily understood bases for integrating ethical issues across the entire curriculum. (3) Inspire and motivate students,helping them to understand their own motives in entering the field. (4) Provide grounding for improvement of future public health decision-making by the program's alumni, whether those decisions are ad hoc or made in an analytical context, such as a “Values Identification Audit.” (5) Provide graduates with a solid intellectual underpinning for the values-inflected decisions they will face in their careers and a sense of a morally-centered community to which they belong. An example of a “values-specific” approach to curriculum development or revision and its adoption is offered, including a discussion of how to incorporate “role-specific” discussions within this framework.