Healthcare Ethics and Law: Analysis of Shapiro et al. (2015) Article

This report critically analyzes an article by Shapiro et al. (2015) on healthcare ethics and law, focusing on medical professionalism and the influence of literature in medical education. The article highlights the importance of ethical considerations, virtue-based attributes, and the role of narrative competence in fostering professionalism among medical students and practitioners. The analysis discusses the arguments presented in the article, emphasizing the significance of both theoretical knowledge through literature and practical experience in patient communication and ethical decision-making. The report also touches upon the importance of the European Federation of Internal Medicine's charter and the Project to Rebalance and Integrate Medical Education (PRIME) in shaping ethical standards. It concludes that a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge is crucial for the development of medical professionalism.

Running head: HEALTHCARE ETHICS AND LAW
Healthcare Ethics and Law
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Doctors are well aware of the ethical concerns and the recent laws in healthcare. Laws
and ethics are framed in healthcare ,just to put a check on the activities and medical malpractices
that would otherwise go unnoticed. Physicians take an oath of not harming anybody (Hall and
Bobinski2014). The study is based on the critical analysis of an article based on the ethical or the
legal aspects. The questions generally hover around the ethical/legal aspects of the facts
mentioned in the paper.
The article chosen for the analysis is authored by Shapiro et al. (2015), and the article
basically deals with the medical professionalism and it explains about how the study of literature
will help a person to converse. The ethics related points highlighted in the article: it is said by the
author that the article is due to the result project to Rebalance and Integrate Medical Education
(PRIME), which is sponsored by the Patrick and Edna Romanell Foundation. The humanities
education and the medical ethics are both prerequisite and vital for the formation of
professionalism during the residency training and medical schooling. The European Federation
of Internal Medicine framed a charter which consists of the attributes based on the virtues like
commitment, patient empowerment, social justice, honesty, trust and altruism. While the medical
educators argued that virtue related definition includes fidelity towards the patients, self-
effacement, respect for others, telling truth, integrity and compassion. PRIME acknowledged
importance of clinical competence and scientific competence that provide the necessary
knowledge through the evidence based medicine. It also emphasizes on the promotion of
interests of the patients and honours the exercise of trust of the general public. This is considered
a necessary and important obligation that needs to be carry forth during the medical practice.
Other definitions support the consolidation of the ethical principles and the moral
values(Doukas, McCullough and Wear 2012).

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There are evidences of rigour during the identification of the articles which are used for
the article selection for the stand taken in the paper. The argument states that if students get the
exposed to the literature then there is a high chance of students inculcating the professional
attributes and virtues. For establishing such an argument, a journal has been cited which says
that, in medical education, the preoccupation is actually a driving force which affirms the
traditional values and the professionalism of a physician-healer. The medical programs use the
various literary sources, physicians, stories, physicians that became patients in the later part of
the life, physicians that turned novelists in order to uphold and promote professionalism. At the
same time, students are called to participate proactively in the narratives which portray
physicians as ideal role models. Such activities and discussions foster the integrity, honour,
competence, altruism, competence. It has also been found that the narratives are to some extent
better than the other conventional approaches which promote professionalism (Holmgren et al.
2012). The second major argument states that the people who disagree base their assertion that
studying literature has purposes and goals that are not related with the professional. Other than
the scientific studies, the physicians need to inculcate an ability which will focus more on
listening to the patient, understanding them and respect their choices and opinions. The
competence which is used by the human beings is related to the response to the stories,
interpretation and absorption, all together is called narrative competence. Thus, more than the
usage of literature, remaining dedicated to the work and working in accordance to the provisions
can motivate aperson to become more professionalism (Shapiro et al. 2015).
The article focuses only on the ethical issues, medical professionalism and how literature
contributes to the effective conversation.with the patients. However, the totality of the evidence
regarding the ethical issues has not been considered, because PRIME has laid emphasis on the

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medical humanities and ethics as the vital bedrock for the formation in professionalism during
residency training and medical school (Doukas, McCullough and Wear 2012). Another instance
speaks that, PRIME has laid emphasis on the vitality of the clinical and the scientific competence
through the usage of the evidence based medicine. While at the same time emphasized on the
promotion of interests of the patients. The interests of the patients must be the first priority of the
physicians in the clinical setting and also as the primary moral consideration. Thus, it was
mentioned that supporting the commitment and also the reinforcement of the ethical and the
moral values (Holden et al. 2015).
There is a potential biasness noticed in the importance of the medical education through
the various methods like the emotional awareness, intellectual enquiry, close enquiry, socio-
cultural contexts which all together will add up to professionalism. According to the author,
storytelling and narratives are considered to be the best way of developing professionalism
among the faculty and the students (Shapiro et al. 2015).
The article is based on the ethical aspects which is experienced by the medical
practitioners and the professionals during the care delivery. The usage of literature, narrative and
the story telling is found to be helpful for the medical professionals for the development of the
professionalism. However, there is no such ethical debate as per the founding of the article.
According to the information, references and citations, there is a wide range of
acclamation that indicate literature as the valid source for the development of professionalism.
Whereas, I think that in order to increase the knowledge base and knowledge horizon, literature
is the best source to execute tasks in a professional and academic life. Although, literature
provides the theoretical background for the development of a person’s perspective. Practical
knowledge is also equally important for the development of ethical and moral outlooks of a

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medical student and a medical practitioner. Thus, for the development of the ethical and moral
senses a medical professional needs to effectively communicate with the patients.
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, both the practical and the
theoretical knowledge is necessary for the development of a medical professionalism.
Theoretical sources like the literature, narration and the story telling are an effective way of
enhancing and improving learning during the medical training. Whereas, on the other hand
communicating effectively with the patients, listening and honouring their viewpoints can lead to
the development of the moral and ethical knowledge.

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Reference
Doukas, D.J., McCullough, L.B. and Wear, S., 2012. Project to Rebalance and Integrate Medical
Education (PRIME) Investigators. Perspective: Medical education in medical ethics and
humanities as the foundation for developing medical professionalism. Acad Med, 87(3), pp.334-
341.
Hall, M.A. and Bobinski, M.A., 2014. Health care law and ethics. Wolters Kluwer Law &
Business.
Holden, M.D., Buck, E., Luk, J., Ambriz, F., Boisaubin, E.V., Clark, M.A., Mihalic, A.P.,
Sadler, J.Z., Sapire, K.J., Spike, J.P. and Vince, A., 2015. Professional identity formation:
Creating a longitudinal framework through TIME (transformation in medical education).
Academic Medicine, 90(6), pp.761-767.
Holmgren, L., Fuks, A., Boudreau, D., Sparks, T. and Kreiswirth, M., 2012. Terminology and
praxis: clarifying the scope of narrative in medicine. Literature and Medicine, 29(2), pp.246-273.
Shapiro, J., Nixon, L.L., Wear, S.E. and Doukas, D.J., 2015. Medical professionalism: what the
study of literature can contribute to the conversation. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in
Medicine, 10(1), p.10.