
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 21, 1994                   TAG: 9405230131
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

PROFESSOR TO JOIN UVA GRADUATES

Dr. James J. Finnerty's students at the University of Virginia medical school asked him to teach classes on ethics.

So the doctor turned student and took a class from John S. Fletcher, director of the university's Center for Biomedical Ethics. That class developed into a course of study as Finnerty became more interested in the subject, and Fletcher advised Finnerty to work toward a degree.

When Finnerty, 65, graduates Sunday with a master's degree in religious studies, the assistant clinical professor will be the oldest student walking down the university's Lawn.

Finnerty said returning to school was ``a little humbling.''

``It was pretty difficult at first, not having written a term paper in 40 years,'' Finnerty said.

He said his studies have made him more aware of patients' needs.

``It makes you more sensitive to patients' autonomy and patients' rights, and it made me look at my whole approach,'' Finnerty said. ``It definitely has made me more sensitive to patients' viewpoints and issues like informed consent and confidentiality.''

Finnerty plans to use the degree to continue teaching first-year medical students ethics, including classes on end-of-life decisions, reproductive medicine, and the rationing of resources under managed care.

Finnerty worked with a medical student, Andrew Shorr, on a study measuring the impact of the ethics course on first-year medical students. The two recently presented their findings to the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics and will publish a paper on the study in the Journal of Academic Medicine.

``Our conclusions were that medical students actually arrive in medical school with a fairly set system of ethical values,'' Finnerty said.

He said his course can supplement those values with information about such ethical tools as living wills.

Finnerty said he will continue working with Shorr, even though he also will graduate Sunday. Their ethics research will help Finnerty ``make a positive contribution to medicine for all the good things I'd gotten out of it.''

by CNB