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9th Annual Meeting 
of the 
International Association of Medical Science Educators 

July 14-19, 2005
 

Abstract Category: General

Poster ID: G4

Enhancing Reflection: A Tool for Practical Ethics Instruction.

Els L.M. Maeckelberghe, PhD*, Marian A. Verkerk, PhD, Hilde Lindemann PhD, Dept. of Medical Sciences, University Medical Centre Groningen, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherland.

Today’s (future) health care professionals provide care in highly organized and complex surroundings, where they encounter not only patients but other professionals whose values do not necessarily accord with their own. These changes in the way the health care system functions have consequences for those who are working in it. To adapt to the new environment, a good professional must not only exhibit the technical proficiency that allows her to do things right—she must also do the right things. She needs to be aware of her own professional norms and values; to be able to express them to her colleagues, her patients, and their families; and to work together with these other actors to provide ethically responsible care. In short, if professionals are to do the right thing, they must acquire new levels of moral competence.

Within the Centre on Ethics of Care at the University Medical Centre Groningen, we have developed a tool for practical ethics instruction aimed at helping  (future) professionals to do just that.

We proceed from the idea that ethics education is a matter of developing a set of skills, namely, (1) seeing what is morally relevant in a given situation; (2) knowing the particular point of view from which one sees it; (3) understanding that others who are involved may see it somewhat differently; and then (4) with those others, responding well to what one sees.

The (future) professional needs to develop these skills of seeing, understanding, and responding if she is to become professionally competent. Professional competence, we believe, requires more than meeting the needs of clients with technical proficiency; it also involves professional integrity, which we understand as reliable accountability: establishing or maintaining one’s reliability in matters involving one’s professional commitments and services. Our aim is to foster professional competence by enhancing the ability of (future) professionals to engage in moral reflection on their practice.

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