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Medical ethics contributes to clinical management: teaching medical students to engage patients as moral agents
Author(s) -
Caldicott Catherine V,
Danis Marion
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2008.03277.x
Subject(s) - medical ethics , autonomy , curriculum , process (computing) , moral dilemma , psychology , clinical ethics , moral reasoning , medical education , engineering ethics , medicine , pedagogy , social psychology , computer science , law , political science , operating system , psychiatry , engineering
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.