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Orientation: Ethics and Professionalism in the Clinical Years 
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Ethics and Professionalism in Individual Clerkships
Family Medicine
Domestic Violence and Geriatrics
Purpose:
To continue to provide the foundational principles needed to operate as a professional physician when confronting child abuse or domestic violence
Objectives:
Students will review the laws and their ethical obligations concerning violence and confidentiality.
Students will be able to list state reporting requirements for child abuse, intimate partner violence, elder abuse, abuse of vulnerable adults, and assault with a weapon.
Students will be able to describe the principles that apply to patient confidentiality for victims.
Students will discuss their own attitudes and feelings concerning violence.
Students will discuss their own attitudes and feelings about family violence, including the possibility of their own as well as friends' or family members' victimization and the need to address ongoing issues arising from such experiences.
Students will discuss the potential for abuse in the medical workplace and in the educational process.
Students will recognize their own reactions to end of life issues and how this may impact their approach to patients.
Students will reflect on their own attitudes, beliefs, and experiences with death, dying and bereavement.
Students will discuss the importance of truth telling when providing bad news to patients and their families.
Students will understand that both physicians and patients bring attitudes and emotions, styles, beliefs, and culture to encounters that may have significant impact upon doctor-patient interactions and outcomes.
· Students will discuss the major issues surrounding the interaction of spirituality and medicine.
Topics to be covered include:
- Violence and Abuse
- End of Life
- Students will demonstrate a commitment to carrying out the professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles, and sensitivity required to provide culturally effective care to the elderly.
- Students will describe the various myths and stereotypes related to older people, recognizing their impact can adversely affect optimal care of elderly patients and be aware of their own attitudes about aging, disability, and death.
- Students will discuss the application of ethical principles pertaining to the provision of withholding clinical care for the elderly.
- Students will discuss the awareness of the cultural aspects of aging, including being familiar with the influence of culture and ethnicity on the aging process, health and disease perception, and medical care.
Methods:
Information will be provided during didactic sessions and during case-based discussions by clerkship faculty.
Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship
Objectives:
Students will discuss ethical principles of genetic testing and working with genetic information.
Students will discuss the ethical and social implications of genetic testing.
Students will discuss the implications for patient confidentiality when family members receive care at the same health care facility.
Students will discuss the rationale for the claim that health care providers may have a duty to disclose information about genetic risk to family members.
Students will discuss the ethical ramifications of technology and reproduction.
Methods:
Information will be provided during didactic sessions and during case-based discussions by clerkship faculty.
Topic to be covered:
§ Genetic Testing
§ Reproductive Technologies
Objectives:
· The student will discuss the care of the neonate and the ethical considerations of ill, malformed and premature neonates.
· The student will discuss futility of care in relationship to the care of neonates.
· The student will discuss the legal rights and the ethical rights of minors.
· The student will discuss appropriate disclosure of confidential information in the care of minors.
· The student will be able to discuss keys to recognizing child abuse and neglect
· The student will be able to discuss reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect
Methods:
Information will be provided during didactic sessions and during case-based discussions by clerkship faculty.
Topic to be covered:
§ Ethical Considerations in the care of the Neonate
§ Rights of Minors
Internal Medicine Clerkship
Objectives:
The student will discuss ethical and professional issues surrounding the provision of end of life care, physician assisted suicide and provision of care at the point of futility of care.
The student will discuss the legal ramifications of provision of care at the end of life.
Methods :
Topic to be covered:
Surgery Clerkship
Objectives : The student will be able to discuss the ethical considerations of a surgical case.
Methods :
Information will be provided during didactic sessions and during case-based discussions by clerkship faculty.
Topic to be covered:
§ Topic chosen from cases encountered during the phase
Psychiatry Clerkship
Objectives :
The student will review the Code of Medical Ethics from the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association Links.
The student will discuss beneficence, non-malfeasance, autonomy, and justice.
The student will discuss the assessment to determine capacity to make a medical decision including the clinical approach, the Georgia Legal Code, and the Candura case.
The student will discuss issues surrounding appropriate and inappropriate boundaries.
The student will discuss the limits on confidentiality and the duty to warn officials in the case of potential harm to self or others.
The student will discuss involuntary commitment, the process and the rationale for commitment and potential legal ramifications of commitment.
Methods :
Information will be provided during didactic sessions and during case-based discussions by clerkship faculty.
Topic to be covered:
§ Principles of Medical Ethics
§ Assessment of Capacity to Make a Medical Decision
§ Boundary Problems
§ Limits on Confidentiality—The Duty to Warn
§ Involuntary Civil Commitment
