Role conflict and conflict of interest: a professional practice dilemma.
BACKGROUND
The structural nature of the optometric profession requires that the majority of optometrists act both as professional health care providers and as entrepreneurial business persons. Clients in turn act both as patients seeking professional health care and as consumers who need to purchase ophthalmic products.


RESULTS
The development of the current structural nature of optometry is examined, and the concomitant moral implications and responsibilities that emerge out of the role conflicts experienced by both practitioner and patient are explained. Inasmuch as the optometrist's relationship to the patient can at times be ambiguous, the optometrist can be put in a conflict-of-interest situation.


CONCLUSIONS
It is the optometrist's moral responsibility to endeavor to avoid conflict-of-interest situations, or to clarify or change them when they occur.
Pullman
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Centre for Society, Technology and Values School of Optometry, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
D016265:Conflict of Interest; D032982:Contracts; D004989:Ethics; D040861:Ethics, Business; D009907:Optometry; D011364:Professional Practice; D024382:Professional Role; D012380:Role; D035502:Trust