Medical ethics contributes to clinical management: teaching medical students to engage patients as moral agents.
OBJECTIVE
In order to teach medical students to engage more fully with patients, we offer ethics education as a tool to assist in the management of patient health issues.


METHODS
We propose that many dilemmas in clinical medicine would benefit by having the doctor embark on an iterative reasoning process with the patient. Such a process acknowledges and engages the patient as a moral agent. We recommend employing Kant's ethic of respect and a more inclusive definition of patient autonomy drawn from philosophy and clinical medicine, rather than simply presenting dichotomous choices to patients, which represents a common, but often suboptimal, means of approaching both medical and moral concerns.


CONCLUSIONS
We describe how more nuanced teaching about the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship might fit into the medical curriculum and offer practical suggestions for implementing a more respectful, morally engaged relationship with patients that should assist them to achieve meaningful health goals.
Caldicott
Catherine V
CV
Center for Bioethics and Humanities, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, USA.
Danis
Marion
M
D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods; D026690:Ethics, Clinical / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D010358:Patient Participation; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*