A physician discusses how medical students should handle an interaction with a patient who has not yet received information from the physician regarding test results and their implications.
Medical expertise includes knowledge of modern interventions as well as the incorporation of ethical considerations and patient goals as they relate to treatment decisions.
The general responsibilities of bioethicists include consulting on clinical ethics issues, sitting on hospital ethics committees, engaging in policy development, and educating others about ethics.
Medical students need an infrastructure and culture that support self-regulation so they can personally and professionally enforce the professional values shared by the medical community.
Health care team members should be informed about the appropriate precautions to take against infection when working with STD patients and address any concerns to provide better patient care.
A medical student has no duty to refrain from repeating a clinical instructor’s comments except for patient-revealing elements. He may, in fact, have a duty to repeat those remarks to someone who can correct the instructor.
Katrina A. Bramstedt, PhD and Francis L. Delmonico, MD
Transplant centers cannot regulate how people establish relationships, but when a donor-recipient pair comes together through Internet solicitation, the center must assess the donor’s motivations carefully.