**3.3 The ethical background**

568 Biomedical Science, Engineering and Technology

all problems in his or her area of responsibility; all of this combined may become a source of abnormal stress. Moreover, the support of life, as no other application of technology, has a direct relation to the human being, his or her health and happiness and to fundamental values. Consequently, an assumption of excellence distinguishes a biomedical engineer from engineers of other specialties. Furthermore, since technology is currently responsible for the ever greater efficiency and effectiveness of medicine, it can also be blamed for any adverse

Striving for excellence at all levels of the implementation of detailed goals of achieving cooperation and suggesting technical solutions to problems is a typical characteristic of the organizational culture. In addition to tasks involving the implementation of educational programs (curricula and syllabuses), one of the School's main objectives is to transmit standards. Thus, when the School becomes an archetype or model of the future workplace and the lecturers employed by the School are expected to set an example of how excellence should be achieved, the care taken to provide a proper form of the organizational culture is a *sine qua non* educational requirement (O'Reilly & Chatman, 1996). If the future graduate student acquires adequate competences during the course of his or her studies, their position will be determined in a multidisciplinary team in real situations in health services. Organizational rules and regulations that are in force in the School, which employs lecturers from various faculties, make the presentation of the lecturers' various roles in the learning process easier by taking into account the person's specific knowledge, skills and attitudes. This approach has been used to make an analogy pointing to the technical excellence of an engineer as a basic argument supporting his or her key role in the multidisciplinary team

effects of medical procedures.

employed in health services.

Fig. 7. Students discussing laboratory projects (2008).

Engineers who are specialists in other fields of technology than medical or biological engineering are rarely confronted with human life in its various forms and stages, such as birth, adolescence, disablement, disease, pain, death, etc. Therefore, special forms and patterns of education should be dedicated to attitudes about human nature in general. Since the engineering process in biomedicine is always part of a medical procedure, the ethical aspects of medicine should be a mandatory element of lectures and practical work in a BMEteaching institution.

The attitudes, norms and values promoted in the organizational culture of the School have an effect on the way how the future graduates will think and act in their professional life. The sense of responsibility and reliability combined with a sense of humanitarianism, curiosity and creativity are among the most desirable attributes of a biomedical engineer, while also held in high value by employers in other fields. The above values are not easily transferable to traditional university teaching methods such as lectures, problem-solving or experiments, therefore elements of the organizational culture may be of some help in this context.

The most important elements of this culture are:

