Article Text
Abstract
In theory, physicians subscribe to and in their actions personify a set of virtues whose performance demands personal engagement. At the same time, they are instructed in their professional roles to remain emotionally and personally distant from those they are called to treat. The result, the authors argue, is an ethical conflict whose nature is described through an analysis of two narratives drawn from an online blog for young physicians. Confusion over professional responsibilities and personal roles were found to affect physicians' perceptions of their clinical duties and their social roles. In addition, it sets in sharp relief contemporary debates on physician training and the ethical nature of medical professionalism. Practically, the authors suggest, the confusion may contribute to early physician burnout. Methodologically, this paper promotes the use of online discussion sites as rich repositories providing an insight into real dilemmas and the actual perception of physicians' attempts to address them. It thus promotes use of such sites as a resource in which assumptions about physicians' own perceptions about the nature of their role in contemporary society can be tested.
- Applied and professional ethics
- blogs
- education for healthcare professionals
- ethics
- general
- medical education
- morals
- narrative
- philosophy of medicine
- professional–professional relationship
- professionalism
- virtue
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Medical professionalism in the age of online social networking
- Bringing narratives from physicians, patients and caregivers together: a scoping review of published research
- Are doctors altruistic?
- Physician age and outcomes in elderly patients in hospital in the US: observational study
- Conflicting duties and restitution of the trusting relationship
- Value promotion as a goal of medicine
- Written role models in professionalism education
- Assessing the impact of colonoscopy complications on use of colonoscopy among primary care physicians and other connected physicians: an observational study of older Americans
- Attributes of a good physician: what are the opinions of first-year medical students?
- Physicians as leaders: are we trying to fit square pegs into round holes?