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Introduction: There has been growing public concern regarding the ethical conduct of healthcare
professionals. At the same time, there is increasing anxiety among healthcare professionals including
dentistry about lawsuits at workplace. All dental professionals should understand that legal and ethical
considerations are integral to dental practice and treatment planning. Dental interns, who are the future of
dentistry, thus need to identify the nature and circumstances of dental health issues that might conflict with
ethics and morality of individual, institutional and societal values.
Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare ethics among dental intern doctors
so that, ethics is truly respected and practiced in dentistry for improved doctor-patient relationship.
Materials and Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out for four months duration among dental
intern doctors working at various teaching hospitals of Kathmandu and Dhulikhel. For data collection, a
self-administered, 33-itemed questionnaire was utilised. The aim of the study was explained and dental intern
doctors who were willing to participate after they signed an informed consent were given the questionnaire.
The data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed using SPSS software.
Result: Among the 130 interns (24.19±1.4 years), 47 (36.2%) knew the content of Hippocratic oath, whereas
111 (85.4%) were aware of Nuremberg code and 118 (90.8%), the Helsinki code. The participants (97,
74.6% females and 33, 25.4% males) had adequate knowledge (103, 79.2%), attitude (126, 96.9%), and
practice (113, 86.9%). When KAP scores were compared with gender. It was found to be insignificant with
knowledge (p=0.528), whereas significant with attitude (p=0.002) and practice (0.019). All (100%) the intern
doctors agreed that ethics should be taught as a part of syllabus.
Conclusion: The education regarding healthcare ethics is lacking at dental graduate level. Despite similar
knowledge, female interns were found to have more positive attitude and motivation to practice ethically
compared to their male counterparts. There should be adequate discussion of ethics during clinical postings
and appropriate ethical topics should be included in BDS curriculum. Thus, this study plays an important
role in sensitising the fresh dental graduates to various aspects of ethics and relevant laws at workplace.

Dentistry; ethics; healthcare; interns; knowledge, questionnaire