Essay About James Denton And Wary Patient

The Question of Autonomy in the “student Doctor” and a Wary Patient
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The Question of Autonomy in The “Student Doctor” and a Wary
Patient
The “Student Doctor” and a Wary Patient brings to light an
interesting dilemma in the medical field, which is: “How do
we introduce young doctors to hands-on experience without
sacrificing the quality of practice in hospitals?” This is a
problem whose intricacies are exposed when James Denton, the
young student doctor in our case, is confronted with the need
to put his patient at ease and act with confidence, while at
the same time not sacrificing the patients autonomy by
misinforming him (which, unfortunately, Denton fails to
protect). The ultimate question is, “At what point and by
what method can Denton achieve balance between autonomy and
beneficence?” Most would agree honesty is a staple in ethics,
and I maintain that holds true here. James Denton is verily
bound to be honest, and by doing so he may very well account
for the patients well being, as well as his right to know
what is being done to his body.
As part of Dentons training, we assume that he must
gain experience dealing with his patients one-on-one and
project confidence, and his attempt succeeds perhaps too
well. He introduces himself as a “student doctor,” which is
certainly honest, but whether the patient does not catch
this, or simply only hears “doctor,” before you know it hes
calling Denton “doctor” and asking questions that assume a
certain degree of experience. Furthermore, he clearly brings
up his distrust for the student doctor population, which
makes Denton even more uncomfortable. This is clearly an
unfortunate situation, as the patients fear is probably
weakly founded and more than slightly unreasonable, and
Denton (and the student doctor population) needs to gain
experience in a “live” scenario, is most likely very
qualified, and on top of that will, indeed, be under the
supportive gaze of the resident doctor. Just the same,
Denton is being asked point blank how experienced he is, and
he knowingly avoids offering the information he is plainly
being asked to reveal.
Calling Denton a dishonest person seems unfair, and
as far as we know, he is a decent human being. But it seems
nearly impossible to make a case that Denton has his
patients autonomy in mind when he chooses to not clarify
what experience he actually has when he obviously knows that
the patient is concerned about this. Now, as far as
beneficence, he is certainly concerned for the patients well
being, and even selected the operation in question because he
felt it would be more effective. So in this way, we can be
sure that Denton wishes the best for his patient, and
undoubtedly will perform his task to the best of his
ability. So why not? The patients nerves are put to rest
by Dentons slightly misleading answers, Denton seems to feel
like he knows what hes doingÐso whats the harm? Well,
trust is pretty much obliterated.
Regardless of Dentons goodwill, he has deceived his
patient. He has allowed this man to believe that he is
someone he is not, and while this may work out here in
practice, we must think in terms of precedent, and about what
we would be “letting in” if we ascertain that what Denton has
done is ethically sound. Kant would roll over in his grave
if he knew we were using the categorical imperative to
establish that deceit “on the patients behalf” could be
universally applicable; and for good reason we should be
hesitant to do so.
Even with precedent and imperative aside, withholding
information presupposes that one knows that the “deceived”
party, once holding this information, would disagree with
ones decision otherwise being made on their behalf.
Further, this would imply that the issue could be concluded
in one of two plausible ways, as the information would not
need to be withheld if this was not the case.
So is the question now, “How can the medical student
community gain the trust of their patients, while at the same
time maintaining honesty?” Of course not. To me, Dentons
route is clearÐand