Work

Medical ethics contributes to clinical management: teaching medical students to engage patients as moral agents

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: In order to teach medical students to engage more fully with patients, we offer ethics education as a tool to assist in the management of patient health issues. METHODS: We propose that many dilemmas in clinical medicine would benefit by having the doctor embark on an iterative reasoning process with the patient. Such a process acknowledges and engages the patient as a moral agent. We recommend employing Kant's ethic of respect and a more inclusive definition of patient autonomy drawn from philosophy and clinical medicine, rather than simply presenting dichotomous choices to patients, which represents a common, but often suboptimal, means of approaching both medical and moral concerns. DISCUSSION: We describe how more nuanced teaching about the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship might fit into the medical curriculum and offer practical suggestions for implementing a more respectful, morally engaged relationship with patients that should assist them to achieve meaningful health goals.

Source: Medical Education

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2008.03277.x

Authors: Catherine V Caldicott, Marion Danis

Institutions: SUNY Upstate Medical University, National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Language: English

Topic: Ethics and bioethics in healthcare

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institutes of Health