:: to the teeth ::    thoughts on social justice, medicine, race, hope and beats

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." :: Arundhati Roy ::

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." :: Alice Walker ::
Tuesday, October 05, 2004  

Thinking about having a sexual relationship with a patient?

...Not so sure if that's ethically "ok"? Well, it seems the profession ain't either. And supposedly 40 percent (?!?!?!) of medical students in Scotland think it's ok to have sex with a patient. But the study that this data comes from only looked at a total of 62 (JUST 62) med students. That's a lot of extrapolation -- to expand that to all med students in scotland.

From the article: "Although sexual relationship between a doctor and patient are prohibited by the codes of ethics established by professional organizations, Goldie and his colleagues said researchers had previously estimated that 11 percent of family doctors in the United States have had a sexual relationship with at least one patient...Another survey of Australian doctors showed 32 percent knew of a colleague who had had sex with a patient. In a similar survey in Canada the number was 10 percent."

"Psychiatrists, gynecologists and general practitioners are significantly more like to have an affair with a patient than other specialists, according to the researchers."

"'Traditional medical education has inadequately tackled the issue,' Goldie said in the journal."

Hell yeah. I don't we ever discussed this in our traditional medical education. Unless it's coming sometime in late 4th year... On a related note, med school isn't very good at adequately addressing the power issues that come with being a physician -- power imbalances with various folks (other health professionals, patients, etc, but that's another topic) and power abuses.

What do ya'll think? Students? Docs? People who go to doctors? Is it Ok? Is it VERY WRONG? Are there gray areas?

posted by Unknown | 10/05/2004 02:28:00 PM | |


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