Article Text
Original Article
Is there a moral duty for doctors to trust patients?
Abstract
In this paper I argue that it is morally important for doctors to trust patients. Doctors' trust of patients lays the foundation for medical relationships which support the exercise of patient autonomy, and which lead to an enriched understanding of patients' interests. Despite the moral and practical desirability of trust, distrust may occur for reasons relating to the nature of medicine, and the social and cultural context within which medical care is provided. Whilst it may not be possible to trust at will, the conscious adoption of a trusting stance is both possible and warranted as the burdens of misplaced trust fall more heavily upon patients than doctors.
- Trust
- distrust
- doctor-patient relationship
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- What's trust got to do with it? Revisiting opioid contracts
- Too much medicine: not enough trust? A response
- Using informed consent to save trust
- Primary care physicians’ views on the factors for enhancing patients’ trust in rural areas of Zhejiang province, China: a cross-sectional study
- Beyond informed consent: the therapeutic misconception and trust
- When doctors share visit notes with patients: a study of patient and doctor perceptions of documentation errors, safety opportunities and the patient–doctor relationship
- Autonomy in medical ethics after O’Neill
- Patient–physician mistrust and violence against physicians in Guangdong Province, China: a qualitative study
- Care ethics for guiding the process of multiple sclerosis diagnosis
- How did rapid scale-up of HIV services impact on workplace and interpersonal trust in Zambian primary health centres: a case-based health systems analysis