Ethical Dilemmas in the Hospital | David Magnus, PhD

Jul 19, 2022

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What happens when miscommunication between a doctor and patient leads to intractable conflict? What happens when a patient requests an intervention a doctor does not feel ethically comfortable with? In the toughest of situations, doctors turn to the clinical ethicist for help. David Magnus, PhD, an internationally regarded leader in clinical ethics, is the director of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Bioethics, and former president of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors. In this episode, Dr. Magnus shares lessons learned from the most ethically ambiguous scenarios he has managed, the importance of ethical thinking skills for all clinicians, and the difficulties inherent in clinician-patient communication.

In this episode, you will hear about:

What it’s like to be a clinical ethicist, handling the tough ethical questions doctors call on them to resolve - 5:05
How an ethicist determines what is “right” in a given circumstance - 9:10
How Dr. Magnus’ deals with patients who refuse to accept his recommendations for care - 11:33
Dr. Magnus’s journey from professor of philosophy to leading thinker on medical ethics - 14:00
How the intense specialization of modern medicine may be contributing to clinician burnout - 23:31
How misinterpretation of language can be a major barrier to good health care - 32:25
Why clinicians use “hedge language” and “shield attributions” and how they can dramatically alter a patient’s understanding of their situation - 40:46
Dr. Magnus’s advice to new clinicians on cultivating skills in ethical thinking and responsible patient communication - 50:45

Learn more about the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities here.

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