While it is important to make parents of severely neurologically damaged newborns aware of the difficulty in predicting their child’s survival chances or future disabilities, it is also crucial to inform them of the statistical evidence about outcomes for their child’s condition.
Asymmetry in knowledge and power between (1) physicians and patients and (2) physician educators and their students creates a climate for possible abuse in both sets of relationships.
The UCLA curriculum model educates students about intimate partner violence by integrating the topic into existing preclinical and clinical course work and offering elective experiences for interested students.
Putting the interest of patients first means attending to what the patient thinks is most important as well as treating medically significant symptoms and conditions.
Should physicians engage beliefs and practices that do not agree with their medical judgment as a means to securing patient adherence to recommended treatment?