Michael Hawking, MD, MSc, Farr A. Curlin, MD, and John D. Yoon, MD
Applying a virtue ethics approach—and especially the virtues of courage and compassion—enables clinicians to care appropriately for “difficult” patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(4):357-363. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.4.medu2-1704.
Visual literacy modules can help trainees learn to integrate narrative and visual information in clinical encounters. The medical humanities curriculum at Australia’s Bond University uses art to build students’ diagnostic skills.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(8):843-854. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.8.imhl1-1608.
Nancy Berlinger, PhD and Annalise Berlinger, BSN, RN
Physicians’ reliance on “culture” to explain patients’ noncompliance may serve as code for their discomfort with difference, uncertainty, and distress.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(6):608-616. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.6.msoc1-1706.
Forced migration of Pacific Islanders raises ethical issues of health and health care disparities, which are examined in the case of Tuvaluan immigrants.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(12):1211-1221. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.12.imhl1-1712.
Comics allowed me to convey multiple layers of a single experience. With both text and image at my disposal, I could use one to enhance the other or create contradictions and juxtapositions that were jarring or darkly humorous.
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.