From Classroom to Clinic: Analysis of Ethical and Cost-Conscious Perspectives of Medical Students in Astana

Abstract

The development of medicine has improved the quality of healthcare, however, it has also been accompanied by an increase in the costs of healthcare worldwide. From the economic perspective, it has led to concerns about the financial sustainability of healthcare systems. By considering the economic and financial costs of medical treatment, medical practitioners increase their capacity to provide more cost-conscious care to patients. However, doctors might have to navigate challenges that limit their capacity to practice cost-consciousness, including managing high workloads related to public service, generating income through their work, and the financial and non-financial costs of medical training. Therefore, the medical education curriculum could be adapted to include additional training and study of cost-conscious care, as well as different perspectives on medical ethics, to prepare them for the modern challenges of healthcare. The paper explores the attitudes of medical students towards public service, money attitudes, and expenditure on medical education, and how it might impact their attitudes towards cost-consciousness. It would simultaneously examine the willingness of students to learn more about cost-conscious care. The paper presents a cross-sectional study, based on the survey of 117 medical students in Astana, and the data was analyzed through principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that the positive attitudes towards public service and positive attitudes towards money have a correlation with the positive attitudes towards cost-consciousness, while expenditure on medical education was not statistically significant. The study concludes that students who support public service and understand the impact of money on daily life have a positive attitude towards cost-consciousness. The implications suggest that adapting the medical education curriculum and adding the study of cost-conscious care would contribute to the training of medical students.