The Physician-Patient Relationship
The Physician-Patient Relationship
Tahira Duncan
Drexel University
Abstract
Sexual contact that occurs concurrent with the patient-physician relationship is considered to be sexual misconduct. The Hippocratic Oath prohibits such relationships. The Oath is deeply rooted in first do no harm. By violating beyond the boundaries in a patient-physician relationship it cause harm to the patient.
Boundaries: The limits of appropriate behavior by a professional toward his/her client.
Transference: Of which a patient is usually unaware and/lacking insight into its significance.
Undue Influence: A judicially created defense to transactions that have been imposed upon weak and vulnerable persons that allows the transactions to be set aside.
The Physician-Patient Relationship
The patient-physician relationship entails special obligations for the physician to serve the patient’s interest because of the special knowledge that the physician hold and the imbalance of power between physicians and patients (ACP, 1998). Patients should be able to trust that their interests and welfare will be placed above those of the healthcare provider, just as they should be confident they will be treated with respect, and be informed so that they can make their own health care decisions to the greatest extent possible (NEC, 2003). As the American College of Physicians Ethics Manual notes, physicians’ obligations to society “parallel their obligations to individual patients (NEC, 2003). Physicians’ conduct as professionals … should merit the respect of the community” (ACP, 1998).
Limits of appropriate behavior by a professional towards his or her clients are known as boundaries (NEC, 2003). Boundaries, it has been said, “define the professional relationship as fundamentally respectful and protective of the patient and as dedicated to the patient’s well-being and best interest (Robers,Battaglia and Epstein, 1999). Code of Ethics and other standards define the
Tahira Duncan
Drexel University
Abstract
Sexual contact that occurs concurrent with the patient-physician relationship is considered to be sexual misconduct. The Hippocratic Oath prohibits such relationships. The Oath is deeply rooted in first do no harm. By violating beyond the boundaries in a patient-physician relationship it cause harm to the patient.
Boundaries: The limits of appropriate behavior by a professional toward his/her client.
Transference: Of which a patient is usually unaware and/lacking insight into its significance.
Undue Influence: A judicially created defense to transactions that have been imposed upon weak and vulnerable persons that allows the transactions to be set aside.
The Physician-Patient Relationship
The patient-physician relationship entails special obligations for the physician to serve the patient’s interest because of the special knowledge that the physician hold and the imbalance of power between physicians and patients (ACP, 1998). Patients should be able to trust that their interests and welfare will be placed above those of the healthcare provider, just as they should be confident they will be treated with respect, and be informed so that they can make their own health care decisions to the greatest extent possible (NEC, 2003). As the American College of Physicians Ethics Manual notes, physicians’ obligations to society “parallel their obligations to individual patients (NEC, 2003). Physicians’ conduct as professionals … should merit the respect of the community” (ACP, 1998).
Limits of appropriate behavior by a professional towards his or her clients are known as boundaries (NEC, 2003). Boundaries, it has been said, “define the professional relationship as fundamentally respectful and protective of the patient and as dedicated to the patient’s well-being and best interest (Robers,Battaglia and Epstein, 1999). Code of Ethics and other standards define the