title: Virtue in Medical Practice: An Exploratory Study.
abstract: Virtue ethics has long provided fruitful resources for the study of issues in medical ethics. In particular, study of the moral virtues of the good doctor-like kindness, fairness and good judgement-have provided insights into the nature of medical professionalism and the ethical demands on the medical practitioner as a moral person. Today, a substantial literature exists exploring the virtues in medical practice and many commentators advocate an emphasis on the inculcation of the virtues of good medical practice in medical education and throughout the medical career. However, until very recently, no empirical studies have attempted to investigate which virtues, in particular, medical doctors and medical students tend to have or not to have, nor how these virtues influence how they think about or practise medicine. The question of what virtuous medical practice is, is vast and, as we have written elsewhere, the question of how to study doctors' moral character is fraught with difficulty. In this paper, we report the results of a first-of-a-kind study that attempted to explore these issues at three medical schools (and associated practice regions) in the United Kingdom. We identify which character traits are important in the good doctor in the opinion of medical students and doctors and identify which virtues they say of themselves they possess and do not possess. Moreover, we identify how thinking about the virtues contributes to doctors' and medical students' thinking about common moral dilemmas in medicine. In ending, we remark on the implications for medical education.
authors: School of Education, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. h.b.kotzee@bham.ac.uk.
authors: Ben
authors: B
authors: Kotzee
authors: Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK.
authors: Agnieszka
authors: A
authors: Ignatowicz
authors: School of Education, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
authors: Hywel
authors: H
authors: Thomas
mesh_terms: D002605:Character; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D028722:Virtues
keywords: Character education; Dilemmas; Medical ethics; Moral reasoning; Phronesis; Virtue