Nicolas Martin (nicolas@...) has sent you a news article

Personal message:

Study Shows Unethical Behavior by Doctors
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/abc/20010322/hl/medicalstudentethics_010322_1.html

---

Home - Yahoo! - My Yahoo! - News Alerts - Help

Home | Top Stories | Business | Tech | Politics | World | Local | Entertainment | Sports | Science | Health 

Health Headlines

Thursday March 22 09:13 PM EST

Study Shows Unethical Behavior by Doctors

By ABCNEWS.com

Nearly two-thirds of medical students have seen a doctor behave unethically, finds a new study. And that, says one expert, bodes ill for the future of medicine.

• Can Hallucinogens Help the Mentally Ill? • Avoid Strokes, Be Happy • More Living News • Subscribe to Breaking News and Daily Emails

Medical students feel pressure to act unethically, and often see their teachers doing so, a study of Canadian students released today in Britain finds.The study released today in the British Medical Journal found that nearly half of medical students feel under pressure to act unethically during training and almost two-thirds regularly witnessed a clinical teacher behaving unethically.

One example of the unethical behavior included not telling a patient he had lung cancer because the team of physicians didn't know what type of cancer it was. In another example, a student was left to close a wound on a patient even though the student wasn't sure how to.

'Whopping' Number Act Unethically

Over 100 clinical students who were about one year away from completing medical school at the University of Toronto were surveyed about their ethical dilemmas for the study. Nearly half reported that they had been placed in a clinical situation in which they "felt pressure to act unethically and a whopping 61 percent reported witnessing a clinical teacher acting unethically."

A policy to help prevent the abuses of both patients and students in medical school is needed, according to an accompanying editorial by Len Doyal, professor of Medical Ethics at St. Bartholwomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine.

"This will ensure that the students of today will be proud rather than distressed that they have chosen to be the doctors of tomorrow," Doyal wrote.

The students indicated in focus groups that they didn't feel comfortable discussing their ethical dilemmas with their teachers, for example when patients were made subjects for educational purposes beyond their need for medical treatment. One student, for example, said that one patient was forced to be used as a teaching tool for students for four long hours.

"We were all very intimidated (by the teacher). We thought it was inappropriate and we all talked about it later, but he (the teacher) put us in a position where we were scared to death of him. We were afraid to say anything, although he was probably wrong."

Email this story - (View most popular)  |  Formatted version

---

Advanced
Search:  Stories   Photos   Full Coverage

Home | Top Stories | Business | Tech | Politics | World | Local | Entertainment | Sports | Science | Health 

---

Questions or Comments
Copyright © 2001 ABCNEWS.com.