You are not just the rural patient’s doctor, you are the doctor for the football team, a friend, and perhaps a relative; you speak on health at local schools and are expected to attend fundraisers.
If a patient’s feelings become sources of resistance to treatment, clinicians need to know how to address these feelings’ influence on the therapeutic capacity of patient-clinician relationships.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(5):436-443. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.5.ecas3-1705.
The graphic novel Swallow Me Whole highlights the need for patient-centered care that engages not only patients but also extended family and the community.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):148-153. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.ecas3-1802.
In the past, forced sterilizations violated the autonomy of vulnerable women. Today, measures intended to protect such women from the abuses of the past may in fact hamper their autonomy in a different way.
The United States government’s insistence that organs can only be procured through altruism, rather than being exchanged or purchased, contributes to the very exploitation of people of color in developing countries it sought to prevent.