Introduction: Medical ethics is one of  important goals in medical curriculum to acquire skills of analysis, reasoning, decision making and solving ethical problems in medical students. Purpose of this study was analysis the challenges of the medical curriculum elements for ethics education.

Methods: Research was conducted by mixed method. It is practical and descriptive-inferential. At first subjects were extracted from formal curriculum by Quantitative content analysis and then was done semi-structured interviews with 14 faculty members of Mazandaran University of Medical. Data of interview were analyzed by inductive qualitative content analysis of Hsieh & Shannon method.

Results: The quantitative results indicated that formal curriculum has allocated educational goals in 43 units per 4 levels (basic sciences, clinical practice, clerkship and Internship). The qualitative findings of the study were classified as follows: Modify goals on need assessment, Content and resources review, Training appropriate time and place, Modifying implementation, Attention to teacher, Modifying teaching-learning process, Multilateral evaluation, Technology as an opportunity, Attention to students, Hidden curriculum management.

Conclusions: Considering the position and necessity of ethics in the medical profession and the problems in the current curriculum, it is necessary to revise in order to treat competent medical students with ethics.