Residents and attending physicians have an ethical responsibility to speak up if there is a concern that a colleague lacks clinical skills and is providing inadequate patient care.
Physicians who are interested providing care to uninsured patients can consider a number of options to balance his altruistic desires with his personal needs.
A retired surgeon explains how keeping a journal helped him deal with difficult professional situations and led him to stronger relationships with his patients.
Derrel Zeno, Coreen Domingo, Anh Tran, Frank Martin, Kimberly O'Malley, Paul Haidet, Richard Street, and Carol Ashton
Community education about how patients can best communicate with their physicians has been successful in various communities, particularly when working with an ethnically diverse patient population.
The primary goals of the current medical licensing exams are to insure clinical competence, but questions have been raised as to the efficiency of these exams.
The use of simulated patients in medical education helps students to develop communication skills needed to interact with patients when difficult circumstances arise.