ROLE OF MEDICAL ETHICS IN DEVELOPING CARING HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Role of Medical Ethics

Abstract

Social scientists have long embraced the
notion that medical education has the inherent
potential to affect and modulate normative beliefs
and personal identities of the medical students.
This narrative has gained importance and
strength over the last few years because medical
education is now considered a process of moral
enculturation, a type of socialization achieved not
so much through a structured curriculum as
through medical educators which above all also
involves the inculcation of distinctive medical
morality1. Ethnographic observation of medical
students has also generated concerns about the
dehumanizing effects of medical education. It is
in this backdrop that proposals for improvement
have continuously been discussed in a biopsychosocial
perspective for a focus on primary and
longitudinal patient care and a kinder, gentler
training process that nurtures desired virtues. It
is then hoped that once the students start
working as health professionals, their ability and
willingness to act in accordance with accepted
moral norms and values is one key component
of their professional behavior. As a result
educational objectives related to ethics are now
often incorporated into broader goals for any
professional education. Medical ethics primarily
concern both the ethical features that are present
in every clinical encounter and ethical issues that
occasionally occur in those encounters2. This also
includes determining the right course of action or
morally acceptable choice from among the
available options.
Key Components of Medical Ethics Education
A medical student must be educated to have
respectful interactions with patients, care givers
and members of the inter-professional groups e.g.
peers consultants and ancillary professionals. He
must be taught to accept responsibility and
follow through on given tasks. He must be able to
respond to each patient’s unique characteristics
and needs. He must exhibit integrity and ethical
behavior in his professional conduct.