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Highlights of the Study
Main principles of ethics, that is beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice, are discussed.
Autonomy is the basis for informed consent, truth-telling, and confidentiality.
A model to resolve conflicts when ethical principles collide is presented.
Cases that highlight ethical issues and their resolution are presented.
A patient care model that integrates ethics, professionalism, and cognitive and technical expertise is shown.
Introduction
A defining responsibility of a practicing physician is to make decisions on patient care in different settings. These decisions involve more than selecting the appropriate treatment or intervention.
Ethics is an inherent and inseparable part of clinical medicine [1] as the physician has an ethical obligation (i) to benefit the patient, (ii) to avoid or minimize harm, and to (iii) respect the values and preferences of the patient. Are physicians equipped to fulfill this ethical obligation and can their ethical skills be improved? A goal-oriented educational program [2] (Table 1) has been shown to improve learner awareness, attitudes, knowledge, moral reasoning, and confidence [3, 4].
Table 1.
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Goals of ethics education
Ethics, Morality, and Professional Standards
Ethics is a broad term that covers the study of the nature of morals and the specific moral choices to be made. Normative ethics attempts to answer the question, “Which general moral norms for the guidance and evaluation of conduct should we accept, and why?” [5]. Some moral norms for right conduct are common to human kind as they transcend cultures, regions, religions, and other group identities and constitute common morality (e.g., not to kill, or harm, or cause suffering to others, not to steal, not to punish the innocent, to be truthful, to obey the law, to nurture the young and dependent, to help the suffering, and rescue those in danger). Particular morality refers to norms that bind groups because of their culture, religion, profession and include responsibilities, ideals, professional standards, and so on. A pertinent example of particular morality is the physician’s “accepted role” to provide competent and trustworthy service to their patients. To reduce the vagueness of “accepted role,” physician organizations (local, state, and national) have codified their standards. However, complying with these standards, it should be understood, may not always fulfill the moral norms as...