RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The ethics of learning from patients
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 535
OP 538
VO 156
IS 4
A1 C. Shooner
YR 1997
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/156/4/535.abstract
AB Is it ethical for medicine to use patients as learning tools for medical students if these patients have not been given a chance to provide truly informed consent? Dr. Caroline Shooner raises this question in the following article, which claimed second prize in CMAJ's 1996 Logie Medical Ethics Essay Contest. She considers the case of a patient whose trust was shaken when a medical student performed a chest-tube insertion. Shooner concludes that psychologic harm could have been avoided had the patient's right to informed consent been respected. She also argues that few patients will turn down a chance to help students learn if the request is made properly and openly.